The Asteria Jump

Thump. Lord Karo's arm took the vibration as the short, bladed scepter in his hand connected with the deck of the frigate's bridge. "All ships report warstations, m'Lord." Thump. "Final preperations complete, we are ready to jump." The bridge of the First Da'ke was a hive of activity as the floatilla broke away from the colony ship and formed into battle formation. The command deck's armour plating had been shuttered over the canopy, the only illumiation the crimson glow of instruments and combat lighting. Thump.

"Open channel to the fleet." Karo ordered, waiting a moment before the serf working the communications instruments nodded. "Children of Kalisa, Scions of Roxal...steel your claws and make ready...we face the Adherants this day. Blasphemers who would dare call our gods false and force us to accept their 'truth'. They have refused to give us the respect we are due and would keep us from sacred hunding grounds." Thump. "The Gods have shown us Asteria" Thump. "Honoured Lurix has shown us the Adherants would keep it from us" Thump! "We will take it!" Thump! As his speech finished, the rest of the D'Kali on the bridge stomped their feet in time with their lord's scepter. The rythym was repeated with an increasing tempo, a thundrous beat that reverberated through every D'Kali soul on board. Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! THUMP!

The beat soon reached a creshendo, only the vacuum of space containing it. As Karo brought his scepter down for another blow upon the deck, his voice bellowed a single, curt command. "JUMP!" Immediatly, the beat stopped only to be replaced with a rising whine as the main engines pulled themselves into the influence of the jump point. Karo braced himself as an intense verdigo tugged at the back of his sinuses, disappearing as suddening as it appeared as the engines returned to their normal pitch.

"Jump complete...all ships accounted for," the officer across from Karo reported. They both stood around a small, simplistic sensor screen that dominated the central console. The jump had momentariy blinded the scanners as they struggled to reorient themselves to local space again "Adherant ships!" the red-scaled D'Kali barked as several blue blips began to flash around the Hegemony formation. The comm system started to crackle as reports from other ships began to pour in, Karo looking to the slave on comms.

"All Da'ke form on us. V'letix break and scatter, begin skirmishing!" The orders were quickly relayed to the other ships, Karo counting on the initiative of the individual commanders. Looking over the display, he could see several Adherant vessels closing in on his right flank, with several larger ships beginning to cross the same flank. "What are they..." Karo started to wonder, before an almost panicked shout cut through the din on the radio

"Roxal's name, they're going to ram! Hard to port, turn in t-" it was T'kaax, captain of the First S'aqa whom was suddenly cut off. Eyes fixed on the display infront of him, Lord Karo watched as two of the Adherant contacts met the S'aqa and disappeared along with the destroyer. He gritted his teeth as he looked back to the comm-slave.

"Engines at full burn, cut along that destroyer formation. Main batteriers hold..." There was a lurch as the nimble frigate turned hard to starboard, Karo's claw gripping the scepter in his hand. The rest of the D'Kali gunships turned with their leader, refusing their flanks and vectoring in along the course of the larger Adherant ships. In the dead of space outside their hulls, their main batteries extended fully from their stowed jump positions. Hydraulics and machinery whiring silently as their barrels swung out to bear in on the smooth turquiose hulls of their prey. The First Da'ke glided swiftly by the broken hull of the S'aqa, D'Kali bodies drifting from the exposed decks of the biforcated destroyer without pause, moments before Karo gave the command. "FIRE!"

The cannon batteries belched gouts of flame as they fired, explosive shells catapulting across the void and slamming into their target a few hundred meters away. The trailing Adherant ship buckled under the combined salvo of three of the D'Kali frigates, while the middle ship attempted to veer and was struck aft by the last two, several seconday detonations rippling through its engine ports. Holding their course, the Adherant ships returned fire, bolts of golden light darting from their gunports in erratic bursts.

Forced the break their formation under the fury of the D’Kali attack, the Adherent ships tried to turn into their attackers only to be met by a storm of incoming missiles. Detonations rippled across the already damaged ships as the warheads hit their marks. One of the destroyers began to list from the force of the impacts, but Karo watched with satisfaction as the second disappeared from his display in a flashing burst. “This is the R’dair, we’re moving to board.” crackled a voice over the radio.

“Order all frigates to come about and concentrate fire on the lead Adherent ship. Leave the wounded one for the boarding parties,” Karo ordered without looking of from the display. The Adherent ships were already scattered, but the D’Kali lord found himself admiring how they were still fighting. They tried to regroup their formation on the opposite side of the D’Kali line, but the more nimble frigates were able to counter before any advantage was lost

In one last spur of defiance, the remaining Adherent ships unleashed their missile tubes on the closest target they could find. Karo watched on the display as the Fifth Da’ke broke away from the rest of the ships, trying to outrun the missiles. The thin, finned seekers bore in on their target with righteous zeal, their tracking systems holding true as they slammed into the hull of the D’Kali ship. A dozen or more warriors bellowed in rage as the gun decks were exposed to open vacuum, clinging to broken metal for as long as they strength would hold before the void took them, vented with the rest of the atmosphere and the crippled ship began to list.

The D’Kali fleet responded in kind, the fury of the remaining undamaged ships concentrated upon their target in a single salvo. Silent detonations illuminated the Adherent destroyer and ripples of shells burst upon its hull, fracturing the superstructure and cracking the ship into pieces with the sheer force of the attack. Their main line broken, the rest of the Adherent ships began to flee, trailed by the D’Kali missile boats. “All ships are free to pursue. Run them all down,” Karo growled, a smile curling along his snout as he looked across the command deck. Warriors began to cheer as the victory became clear. “Status on the Fifth?”

There was a few moments of pause before one of the serfs replied “Their commander is still alive…the ship is crippled…but salvageable.”

Lord Karo let out a sigh of relief. Commander Torax was a good warrior, and it was good to see he’d survived to fight again. “Bring us alongside to take the wounded aboard, and send for the Pilgrims to make the jump into the system. Relay back to Kalisa…Roxal be praised! Asteria is yours, Archon."