The Singular Apollo fighter banked hard for another pass, until the Copilot noticed an alarm, and a flickering beacon.
"Sir, we have an incoming missile!" The Copilot screamed, while the Pilot nodded.
"I see it..." He said, banking the Apollo sharply to the right. "Hit the countermeasures and go full burn! We're falling back!"
The Pilot grabbed the control stick as Merek began to rapidly gain on the aircraft. "Activating stealth countermeasures." The Copilot said, while refractive panels on the Apollo began to bend the light with a magnetic field, the Apollo began to shimmer like sunlight on water, before it disappeared entirely. A moment later it's afterburners kicked in, and the craft rapidly began to climb at supersonic speeds.
Before Merek could level his attack on the singular fighter; it would vanish.
AHSC Reverence II Litany of Fury
The Fringes of the Blackrock System
Commander Amelia Montrose
Commander Montrose watched in silence as the photos and video from the Apollo scrolled across her command display interface. The organized chaos of a Reverence II's CIC buzzed about around her, while she navigated through the pictures with swift hand gestures.
"Interesting." She said as she swiped to another picture.
"An Alien civilization is constructing some kind of colony on Blackrock." She said, turning to her XO, whom offered a slight nod.
"All hands report they're ready for jump." The XO reported, and Montrose nodded.
"Alright, let's roll." She said, bringing up the shipboard AI. "AI, Set FTL course to Blackrock, situate us in high orbit, and then put us above the alien settlement." She said, before she picked up the intercom, her slender fingers wrapping around the microphone.
"All hands, action stations!" She called out, before she seated the device back into it's receptacle, it was then the lights dimmed to red, and the entire Reverence II came to life, with personnel going to their stations, bringing the ship to combat readiness. The Alarms began to klaxxon all throughout the ship before she nodded to the AI.
"Jump."
It was a few moments, Amelia could feel her stomach knot up before there was a lapse, and everything began to level out.
"Commander, we've arrived at the target designation."
----
Blackrock
Demiarchal Colony
For those on the surface, the Reverence II's arrival was signaled with a deafening crack, roughly an hour after the small fighter had been sighted, the massive 30km long Reverence II jumped into the skies of Blackrock above the Demiarchals settlement.
The sheer size of this ship was enough to instill fear in even the mightiest of commanders, as she stretched nearly completely across the sky, and her size completely blotted out the sun as it cast a dark shadow over the Demiarchal colony.
The Reverence II slowly settled itself into the upper atmosphere, while Commander Montrose was overseeing a three-dimensional hologram of the city below, the AI highlighting points of interest, while the tunnels below were revealed through high-powered sensors mounted on the Reverence.
"Shields up, full power, all weapons batteries should consider their targets, but do not fire." Montrose ordered, before she brought up a large display.
"Broadcast a transmission on all frequencies." She ordered, but was promptly interrupted by a Lieutenant.
"Sir! Ground teams are assembled and ready for gravity lift deployment, CAG reports all bombers are ready for launch." He said, saluting, while Montrose nodded.
"Very good, return to your station."
"Commander, we're broadcasting on all channels." The AI reported.
"Very good.. alright, bring me up." She said, and the AI nodded, while the Commander began to speak.
"Attention unidentified alien colonists, this is the Litany of Fury, this world is under the jurisdiction of the United Aschen Empire, identify yourselves and explain why you have trespassed upon this world. You have thirty seconds to reply or we will commence military operations to remove you from this planet."
"Sir, i'm detecting some kind of transportation vortices throughout the colony." The AI reported, and Montrose nodded. "Calibrate the Jump inhibitor and the Planck Packs, shut it down."
The AI nodded, and the Reverence began to power up it's Inhibitors, a few moments later a powerful field surged fourth from the ship above, the Planar stabilization field would likely prevent teleportation, be it magical, or technological. This would be evidenced by the Demiarchals vortex being shut down, and forced to collapse which would effectively cut them off from their source until either the ship was destroyed, or the Aschen deactivated the field.
The field was powerful, and would likely overcome even the most powerful attempts to reopen a vortex, for the stronger the energy, it seemed the stronger the field would become, stabilizing everything on the quantum level, and preventing everything from teleportation, to full fledged Hyperspace jumps.
Immediately following the engagement of Aschen Inhibitors, the massive turbo-disruptor batteries on the underside of the ship began to traverse, swiveling on their emplacements to bear down onto the city below, each turbo-disruptor at full power carried enough energy to flatten entire city blocks, and with 750 of these massive batteries on the ventral side of the ship, it could level staggering firepower onto the city below in a very short period of time.
Lastly, a flash appeared on the bow of the vessel, and a milky white barrier flashed from bow to stern, before completely vanishing, obfuscating attempts to scan the ship. The Ship's massive shields were up at full power.
There was silence save for the low rumble of the ship's engines, and the threatening tone of Commander Montrose's Transmission.
There was silence on the Bridge too, as Montrose awaited a reply, her hand hovering over the city as she selected targets.