Resurgence - Magnus' Sacrifice
Magnus' Sacrifice
Magnus was at the helm of the Kerensky’s Hope watching as his smaller Raven fleet barreled into the Sea Fox formation. Blistering arrays of fire were slamming back and forth between the ships. Every Raven knew their time was limited and fought like absolute hell to make this as glorious of an ending as they could.
Magnus watched his console’s holovid image, showing the vessels all intermingled with each other. He had both his own warships flank the Skate Khanate Arcship, Atlantean, and swarmed it with a large number of the dropships and fighters at his command. Everything that could fire was tearing into the Arcship, warning klaxons were sounding across the Kerensky’s Hope as the Sea Foxes began focusing their fire on the pair of Raven warships.
Both fleets were losing multiple dropships every few minutes as vessels turned to fireballs hurtling in the chaotic bloodbath. A new wave of fire slammed into the Kerensky’s Hope only this time, the IlKhanate Arcship, Tsunami, dealt the devastating amount of damage. Magnus looked around the bridge seeing numerous holovid panels flashing on and off, looking down, his own command console was going haywire.
Rumbling outside and inside the Kerensky’s Hope told the bridge crew that their hull had been breached severely, followed by an alarm screaming that signaled for crew to reach escape pods. The ship’s Captain stood and ordered his crew to the pods, saluting them as they stood and ran out of the bridge. Some of the staff ignored his orders and continued to fight on, firing every last missile and laser.
Magnus did the same, he was ordering maneuvers from assault dropships and targeting specific craft. Seconds later one of the corridor hatches blew into the bridge with a fireball. He looked to the Captain to see him already facing Magnus’ direction. Both, firmly gripping their consoles, simply stated, “Seyla”.
Flames filled the bridge, blowing out the ferroglass shielding. Outside, columns of flame blew out sections of the hull, dissipating in the vacuum. Then, the Kerensky’s Hope exploded. Huge sections of the hull flew in all directions, most of the port side hull slammed into the Atlantean ripping deeply into its severely damaged port armor. Other pieces took out dropships and fighters from both the Sea Foxes and Ravens.
On the starboard side of the Atlantean the crew aboard the Raven Storm Crow could see the weapons systems failing on the Sea Fox Arcship. The Captain ordered a full assault to take the Arcship down, giving way to the remaining Ravens echoing a rallying cry over the fleet channel. Dropships and Fighters worked through the wreckage of the Kerensky’s Hope to exploit the severe structural damage the Atlantean took. Attempting to accelerate away and past the remaining Raven warship, the Atlantean’s engines came to life at full thrust.
As it picked up momentum, the Storm Crow Captain ordered the bridge to ignite their own port side navigational thrusters, pushing the ship starboard directly towards the accelerating Atlantean. Warning klaxons had been blaring for some time from the severe damage their own ship was taking. The Captain could see the writing on the wall as he reviewed the remaining fleet numbers. Sure, multiple Sea Fox dropships and jumpships had been taken out by the Ravens but, not nearly enough. “Maximum thrust!” he shouted to the bridge as the crew gave everything the Storm Crow had left.
Shrieking squeals, shaking, and rumbling of impacts began echoing through the hull as the rear of the Storm Crow slammed into the starboard, back half of the Atlantean. Both ships began rotating clockwise as they collided, the few remaining Raven dropships and fighters firing on the Atlantean. Soon though, after a handful of barrages, the Storm Crow went dark, escape pods jettisoning. Both massive ships still rotated, a large crack formed along the Atlantean’s hull, the engines flickered and died. The stress and damage was too much for the Arcship’s structure as it began to tear apart in the final moments of the battle.
Two final Raven aerospace fighters saw the crack form, weaving their way along the vast debris field of destroyed jumpships, dropships, fighters, and the Kerensky’s Hope, they aimed right for the Atlantean. Every Sea Fox weapon was firing in their direction as they corkscrewed and wove, weapons fire slamming into floating debris all around them. Both made it through the debris field, straight towards the widening vertical crack in the hull.
Each second felt like an eternity for the Sea Fox fleet, watching the two last Ravens fly at maximum velocity, disappearing inside the crack. Then explosions ripped out of the crack, followed by explosions blowing out sections of the hull all along it, in the same way as the Kerensky’s Hope. Sea Fox ships began navigating away as fast as they could. However, it was not fast enough for some as the Arcship exploded, taking the dead Storm Crow out in the explosion.
A handful of slower dropships were caught in the explosion, vaporizing or being pulverized. A number of ships took cover behind the Tsunami, which took a huge wave of debris, multiple sections of the dead Arcship’s hull slamming into it. Even in death, the Ravens exacted a great toll on the Sea Foxes.
As Mori Hawker ordered his fleet to search for survivors, his rage grew as so many had been lost. He was unsure what to think at this atrocity. With the Snow Raven’s bad blood from the past, this only made it worse. In his soul he vowed to ensure the annihilation of whatever was left of the Ravens.