*
The
Galactus exited hyperspace from an odd elliptical plane that saw the dagger end of the warship pointed towards what would have been the northern pole of Belkadan had the ship been in orbit. As it was, the planet was barely visible giving the warship's scanning systems time to take in the situation of the entire solar system rather than just the one planet.
"The sensors cannot seem to penetrate the system beyond Belkadan. Something is causing interference." reported the Captain of the Sensor Pit.
Kaine nodded, seeing as much on his tactical display as the holographic projection seemed to blur and wink out the farther one went from the planet opposite their position.
"Maybe the task force will have better reception since they will be closer," the Supreme Commander commented as Gordon Sveli, the warship's master, ordered fighter screens launched.
The tactical display changed, showing the arrival of Task Force Group One, Three Imperators and a Reign Class Star Destroyer arranged in what looked like, from their vantage, a diamond formation. However, the rear vessel was not directly behind the front vessel but elevated to ensure clear fields of fire.
The display of the
Galactus showed each capital warship spawning their individual fighter corps to be used as a screening force as well as advance scouts. The number of Imperial warships more than doubled as groups of three Contrainer pickets each flickered into range of the command ship's sensors from vectors used by both civilian and military traffic. Kaine did not need to see the confirmation to know the Constrainers had their gravity well projectors on. The Constrainers had dropped out of hyperspace just shy of the system to place signal buoys to warn ships away from the system.
It was curious that upon their arrival, there did not seem to be any communication signal jamming going on so why did the Imperial World not call for help if it was attacked nor warn away merchantile and military traffic?
The sensor sweeps from the Task Force approaching the planet had started to pick up up large amounts of scattered debris from vessels arriving into the system unwary and caught by surprise. It was then that the dark objects of the enemy came into view as their orbits took them out and away from the far side of the planet.
From their distance, the Imperials could not really tell anything from their enemies except the size and look of their vessels.
"Small things," murmured Sveli as Kaine's eyes narrowed in contemplation.
"About half the length of an ISD," the Admiral continued, "Twenty warships."
"Look at the sleekness of their ships," Simon pointed out.
Admiral Sveli instantly saw the implications, "They cannot have much carrying capacity for ground troop deployment."
"They will be hardpressed to expand which is why they may not have moved on after the defeat of the local defence forces," Kaine also added.
"So, do we stop the fleet from coming?" the Admiral asked and Kaine pondered for a minute before shaking his head.
"No. We are on the fringes of the Empire here and the enemy craft does not seem to be a known player. If they represent a faction as yet undiscovered, we may need the fleet's strength to take the fight to them."
"And conquer them," Gordon added with a feral grin.
"And show them the error of their ways," Kaine agreed.
*
Lord Stannes looked at the approaching four ships knowing their intent. They were the same type of ships that had attacked them earlier and had posed no trouble.
"Four ships to engage twenty," his Commander of the Blades interjected. While the Blades themselves belonged to separate Houses, this campaign of the Vikar put all Blades under Stannes' command which immediately caused the other houses to feel enmity towards him. Which was the Vikar's purpoase all along, it seemed.
"Dispatch House Hark vessels to meet them," he ordered knowing the command would be immediately obeyed. No matter his personal feelings of disgust for their current Vikar, the authority belonging to House Reaver as Vikar would be obeyed until a House discovered an advantage in disobeying. But that was a situation that seemed remote now and so House Hark would obey.
That foul, disgusting man, Lord Reaver, had launched an attack on Varriathorn with eight blades, one of which had belonged to House Barrador, the turncoat, who was a minor house under House Hark until he suddenly, and quite unexpectedly entered Reaver territority never returning to Hark or even communicating with him.
Stannes' own negotiations with Hark were hampered by the turncoat but still they persisted knowing together they could still pose a threat to old Reaver even as Stannes daughters courted the Reaver son. His good relationship with House Reaver (if one could call it a relationship), despite whatever personal feelings he might have had, caused Hark to move at a slow pace until Barrador acted. But even as their conspiracy started to take shape, House Reaver's forces surprised everyone by boldly attacking Varriathorn and, even more surprisingly, winning.
The tale his daughters told from the Reaver Son's Blade was enough to chill his heart. It was as if half of Varriathorn's Blades had turned rebel like Barrador and fired on their own people and in one swift move, the balance of power shifted into the Reaver's favor. That alone assured the assension of House Reaver and the descent of House Varriathorn but Old Man Reaver was not satisfied with that.
The Vikar had died upon hearing of the attack and his son, who had been immediately sworn in as leader of House Varriathorn and as Vikar, could only preside over the destruction of his House. The young man had tried to honorably surrender to the Reaver but the Old Man would have none of it and ordered his newly augmented fleet to open fire leaving Varriathorn's moon and holdings a virtual wasteland. Varriathorn was destroyed leaving only six Major Houses remaining.
The other Houses were shocked at the Reaver's display but found themselves powerless to do anything about it for House Reaver claimed sixteen blades and the others were as suspicious of each other as they were of the Reaver. No one contested Vikar Reaver's claim and so Varriathorn space was turned into a Dead Zone. Any ships entering were sentenced to death and oddly enough, every scout that Stannes tried to sneak into the ruins of Varriathorn never came back.
It might have been a mystery that the other Houses would have considered and acted upon given enough time but the Reaver was not one to sit and wait but ordered the lathes of the major Houses to begin contruction of the great cosmic engines that opened the gate to the blackness of space once more and to this world, wherever this world was...
His cartographers mapping the stars could find nothing familiar and he wondered how the Vikar had come to know of this place.
"Belkadan," he rolled the word around on his tongue.
"House Hark is engaging the enemy," his Retainer remarked drawing Stannes attention back to the present.
The enemy warships were much bulkier and larger than their Themien counterparts. This probably afforded these ships a greater reach for their weapons which they tried to use to their advantage the moment the Themien blades entered range.
The experience from the earlier conflict had shown the blade commanders just how strong their armour was against the weaponry of these people and so the commander from House Hark held his fire as he closed. Stannes approved for by doing so, he denied the enemy knowledge of how far the Themien weapons ranged.
*
Supreme Commander Kaine and Admiral Sveli watched as the concentrated firepower of the Task Force washed harmlessly over the skin of the approaching enemy. The Imperial fighter screen tried to harrass the enemy but found their weapons even less effective as the sleek ships simply ignored them. The turbolasers of the Imperial Star Destroyers soon gave way to torpedos and missile weapons and, as they were launching, the lead enemy ship fired a beam weapon that seemed to penetrate the lead Imperial warship's shields as if it were a vibroblade to meat slicing open its hull.
Kaine's eyes widened at the display in surprise instantly realizing what was going to happen to the rest of the vessels. But he could not recall the Star Destroyers. Not now.
The enemy ships were rather agile and quick and the Imperial warships were slow. The enemy would simply cut them to pieces if they tried to retreat and so the four vessels were committed.
"Launch all projectile weapons at our disposal," he ordered.
"We will not catch the attacking ships at this range," warned the Admiral and Kaine merely nodded.
"But we do know where these ships will be," he pointed to the rest of the enemy fleet that had remained in orbit. Intercept them and let's see what happens..."
