Snippet #2454963

Killigan paused on his deck for a moment, watching the fury be renewed once more. A ping from his implant was enough to send the call for the surviving fighters, which was a large majority of the surprisingly sturdy craft, back to their hangars. The swarm returned inside of the heavy hulls, but the Admiral's eye was traversing his viewscreens, looking between the newly created black hole and the Hadron Cannon. Orders and circumstances dictated that he leave the weapon alone, but common sensibility stated that it was no way to wage war.

Finally he spoke, only to his bridge crew. "We hold. While they sent men in on suicide missions, we stood in the storm and defended what we could. And what vessels they had that didn't flee died by their own hands."

The man's voice was laced with disgust, for even the man chosen to lead the most darkly purposed of Rain's fleets knew there was a point of too much. A planet or two was one thing, but to instantly damn an entire system? He would not abide that. Could not, since it could've killed his men and women just as easily. "Stay your positions. Only engage any that pass the cordon."

The vessels of the taskforce did just that, the mammoth ships moving into a simple cordon line, but approaching no further to the conflict. Killigan transmitted video footage that had been captured during the battle, sending a whisker transmission bouncing through the UDW network of satellites designed for such purposes, before taking the few minutes to generate his report and dispatch it back to the Umbral Sector via a TD capsule drone.

"Reopen the SEC channel, encrypt it to Tier 2."

The Admiral's voice alone beamed over the SEC Flagship. "Admiral, I'm not sure if you feel as I do about the ultimate outcome of this battle. I had realized that weapon was a powerful one, but this is not how war is fought."