The Archon and the Truth

"Status!"

"Jump complete...all ships accounted for and in battle formation," The slave at the console paused as the destroyer's instruments adjusted and cleared through the post-jump blindness. "Adherent fleet at 130-94...out of weapons range."

Rakx gripped the edge of the map console tighter in his claws, his toes curling against the deck plating below them as he felt the anticipation, the fire of battle welling in his chests. It had been far too long since he'd felt it, and even if he died today, the D'Kali Archon knew in his hearts he'd made the right decision to lead the fleet himself. Pounding his claw against the comm panel, he snarled as his broadcast were sent to all ships; both D'Kali and Adherent. "Warriors! Today we end this war, one way or another. Oaths you have taken, to me and the Gods. Honour them! Look to your commanders, look to your fellow D'Kali...Look to Roxal, offer the bodies of your kills as tribute to him! All ships, to me! For Victory!!" Closing the open channel, he nodded to the drake at communications to re-encrypt the signal "Bring the fleet about and accelerate to flanking speed! Keep formation, point defenses to maximum spread." Rakx growled to himself as he looked over the shifting display in front of him. "I refuse to lose a ship before we fire our guns."

In the black of space, the large school of pointed red hulls turned almost in unison, their drives flaring as they pushed themselves to maximum speed. Gunports opened and cannons swung out menacingly, as hungry as their crews for battle. Within the bowels of each ship, slaves carted massive shells into position and made ready to load soon-to-be-emptied breeches as tense gunners waited for the first signs of incoming missiles. It didn't take long for the Adherent fleet to respond to the D'Kali, the smooth blue and gentle curves of their hulls belittling the very real danger they posed to the Hegemony fleet. Missile tubes flared almost immediately, clouds of deadly seekers veering away from their parent ships and bore in on the Archon's ships.

By now, Rakx' fleet had formed into a loose weave, each ship giving its neighbours enough room to manouver while still protecting one another with their defensive guns. As the first wave of Adherent missiles closed, dozens of cyclic guns erupted in fire, spitting thousands of shells into open space in just a few brief seconds. The stars in front of the D'Kali ships burst into a curtain of flame and debris as the Adherent missiles dissolved under the weight of fire, any missiles that made it through only stuck down by the next layer of defensive fire. Rakx watched as the Adherent ships began to pull back, but the faster D'Kali ships began closing the gap.

Emboldened by the success of their defense, several corvettes suddenly surged ahead of the main body of the D'Kali fleet, Rakx snarling. "Tell those fool Ralak to pull back into formation, NOW!" Rakx snapped to his comm operator, but it was too late. The next volley of Veritas missiles had already launched, and without the mutual cover the fleet had provided the small ship's batteries were overwhelmed in moments. In a last act of defiance, the corvettes unleashed their main batteries on the closest Adherent ships, their shells detonating in a multi-spectral arc against the destroyer's shields before they were blown apart by the incoming warheads.

Rakx could see now how so many of his warriors had fallen to these Adherent cowards...Their tactics, while dishonourable and deplorable, were incredibly effective. Doubly so as the D'Kali lust to close for battle truly began to show. "Keep us in formation until I say otherwise!" Rakx growled again, eyeing the display. The Adherent ships were beginning to split their formation, trying to form a wide curve around the incoming D'Kali ships.

"Archon, our right flank." Rakx' second, a general that had long served with him by the name of Ixtil, pointed to the display. Several of the Adherent destroyers were curving wide. "They're going for the supply ships"

Rakx nodded and quickly checked who was in position to prevent the manouver before he looked back up along the command deck. "Eighth K'rissth, Tenth Ralak and Third K'n'trell break off to intercept those ships" The battle had fully begun though; even as the Adherents were attempting their flanking manouvers, it had let the vanguard of the D'Kali fleet close the gap and enter gun range. The much larger ship-to-ship cannons joined their shuddering, punishing volleys with the rapid chatter of the point defense guns as they came into range, Rakx keeping a close eye on the peripherals of the battle. "First and Second K'n'trells take up skirmish positions...S'aqa's keep close to cover them..." Muted chatter began to flow from the comm panel as other ship commanders reported in earnest, Rakx feeling a small wave of jealousy as one of the R'dairs reported they had begun boarding actions. He wished he could join his warriors in the press of close combat, feel his blades and claws bite flesh...

But his place was on the bridge of his ship, and the battle was far from won. The Adherents had quickly realized their attempts to flank his position had failed. They were once again trying to open up the gap and restore the advantage of their missiles, sacrificing their left to the brutal, swirling melee that had resulted from the two fleets colliding. The fury of battle had begun to break apart Rakx' formations, stringing his ships out along the line and the point defense fire they could provide one another was no longer as dense as it had been in the opening minutes of the battle. With their left flank abandoned, every remaining Adherent ship was regrouping far on the D'Kali left, a fresh salvo of missiles firing into the disordered ranks. "Very clever..." Rakx muttered as he saw what the Adherents had done; in splitting their fleet and sacrificing their left, the D'Kali too had split in half.

"Finish that right flank and get those ships back here, Ixtil," the Archon snapped. "All other ships, break formation and charge! Finish this!" With his fleet still broken up along the line, Rakx' squadron was in fact out numbered, but at the close range certainly had an advantage over the missile-dependent Adherent destroyers. The ship vibrated with each volley of its main cannons, Rakx tightening his jaw as more and more reports filtered in. A sudden trio of alerts sounded as the Adherent ships fired another volley of missiles, one of the weapons officers bellowing "Incoming!"

At the close range, and with only a few other ships providing mutual fire, there wasn't enough time to intercept all of the missiles. Ixtil barely had enough time to shout "BRACE!!" before Rakx, his second and much of the bridge crew were both thrown to the deck by the force of the impact. An atmospheric module in the wall erupted and sent shrapnel raining across the room, his prone position saving Rakx from being impaled by a short beam. "REPORT!" Ixtil bellowed even as he got to his feet again, barely heard over the angry hiss of venting gasses. A pair of D'Kali rushed to quell the fire that had begun to burn as another checked his instruments. "Hull breach at deck three, primary life support is out! Reports of feedback through the whole environmental system, switching to backups..." the drake looked back at Rakx, the Archon noting there was a bloodied piece of shrapnel sticking out of where one of the officer's eyes had been. "Weapons and engines are still reporting online, Archon."

"Then get us back into gun range!" Rakx replied, steadying himself against the central console once more. Two acolytes and a priest of Yivris entered the bridge and began their work on the wounded, the Archon waving off one of them as they tried to check on a cut on his leg he had noticed only then. "Are we going to survive on just backup life support, Ixtil?" he asked in a low tone, gaze staying unbroken from the map display.

"Just pray to Kor that his acolytes built this ship properly" came the grim reply, even as the Yivrisans moved on from a dead D'Kali, his throat torn to shreds when the bulkhead had exploded.

The last of the Adherent ships on the right flank and been eliminated, every D'Kali ship now rallying to support the Archon, but they were still minutes away. The main guns shuddered under Rakx' claws as they poured volley after volley into their prey, the gun crews rushing to load and fire as many shells as they could before their enemy had a chance to lose another salvo of missiles. Two more of the Adherent's destroyers buckled and detonated under the hail of D'Kali fire, their magazines exploding even as their few remaining comrades returned fire.

"More missiles!" one officer shouted, Ixtil glancing at Rakx with concern. The Archon watched on the display as the missiles began to turn in their direction, before one of the corvettes suddenly banked hard and flew between them and the incoming seekers. The smaller ship crumpled under the Adherent salvo, its armoured belly ripped open by the first two missiles before the third struck its exposed reactor. Rakx muttered a brief prayer for the souls aboard before refocusing his attentions. With more then two dozen D'Kali ships now focused only the only few remaining Veritas destroyers, it was short and bloody work. Free from the disciplined formation fighting, several of the smaller, faster corvettes closed to point-blank range and raked their targets with cannon fire, opening them up for the larger destroyers to finish their prey as they caught up. Aquamarine debris cluttered the space around the final melee even as Rakx ordered his ship to pull back. He was beginning to feel light headed from the damaged air filtration systems, and a distinct chill was beginning to bite at the air of the bridge.

"Send word for the boarding craft to search the debris for any survivors," he said quietly. "And have the Eleventh K'rissth dock to assist with critical repairs...Then order the support ships to jump into the system and regroup with the fleet." Looking over at Ixtil he smiled, for the first time since the battle had started, he realized. "We have a siege to lift."