290 Reconquest of the outer citadel 2

"Boy this drive sure is smooth, please extend my gratitude to your contacts over at Lazarus."

Hardly needing to brace or even able to notice a difference or movement in the cup of coffee he was drinking, fleet admiral Simmons turned to Dax in amazement, even after experiencing such a smooth ride over 50 times already he still was amazed every single time.

"Will do Simmons."

Exiting the jump inside hostile territory, the attitude in the bridge of the battleship Ingenuity was surprisingly relaxed, at least among the two commanding officers.

"Scan for immediate contacts and launch the barrage ships and fighters, I want a 30 light second secure area for the rest of the fleet."

"Yes ma'am, the 2nd and 3rd fighter group are scrambling."

"Report from gravseq, all ships have latched on to the beacon successfully, we'll be fully reinforced in 10 minutes."

With two X.O's between them, Dax and Simmons hardly needed to do a thing outside of combat, this was the reason for their overall relaxed attitude.

"Immediate contact! Baring 081, range, 2109 light seconds! Second contact, bearing 333, range 3039 light seconds! both closing range rapidly!"

With the report of hostile contact, the bridge suddenly went into a controlled frenzy with orders and reports rapidly exchanged throughout the room, but still, Simmons and Dax remained quite lax.

"Here come the first ones, they are really eager to fight today huh?"

"That would be because this is the first time in a few hundred years we've been on the offence, the Emergence properly didn't expect us to fight back all of a sudden."

After a tiny bit of more small talk, Dax's attitude changed together with fleet admiral Simmons' as the two men started to smile at each other.

"I'll leave this to you, Simmons. You have the conn."

"Identify those contacts immediately and launch a preemptive strike with the railguns! Task IMI to look for incoming ordinance and issue a warning to deployed fighters, warn them of the contact and tell them to be wary of mines while completing their original task! Deploy the barrage ships in a fan formation, orders are to stand by for point defence!"

Transforming from a jolly old man into a highly decorated fleet admiral in the blink of an eye, Simmons started barking orders while power was diverted from none essentials into the capacitors of the ships brand new and singing 720 mill Lazarus anti ship class railguns eagerly absorbed the charge they were given, in a matter of seconds they were charged and opened fire, accelerating their serval ton heavy proximity fuse payloads to high fractions of the speed of light in a split second.

"First gun salvo is away! The two contacts are not manoeuvring, impact on targets in approximately 35 seconds!"

[IMI REPORTS: 45 INCOMING LARGE CLASS PROJECTILES, KILLING WITH HEL AND CWIS.]

Seeing how the hostiles made little attempt at fire back, Simmons identified their strategy as a suicide ramming. Working from that assumption he started countering their intentions.

"First salvo hit! Good effect on target, contact 1 slowing acceleration, contact 2 remains unchanged!"

"Give me a firing solution on those drives, load AP and engage as soon as ready! IMI task all available HEL's, blind their sensors!"

[ROGER, SATUATING TARGETS WITH HEL, IMI REPORTS: 34 INCOMING LARGE CLASS PROJECTILES, KILLING WITH CWIS.]

"Targets identified! Contact 1 is the battlecruiser Freedom while contact 2 is the fast attack cruiser Bravery!"

While the reality of the hostile ships being fallen allies was disturbing, admiral Simmons was not dissuaded from destroying them in the slightest, those aboard the Emergence ships were already dead, his current job was to ensure that his own crew survived.

"Navigation, issue ship wide collision alert! Prepare for rapid acceleration and evasion manoeuvres!"

"Second salvo is away! TTI contact 1, 20 seconds, TTI contact 2, 13 seconds!"

"Navigation accelerate astern, flank bell!"

"Navigation confirms! New course, astern, flank bell!"

With battleship Ingenuity's retrograde engines firing at full power, the ship started moving away from the closing threats, although even at maximum acceleration it would only grant a few more seconds.

"Second salvo hit! Good effect on target, contact 1 destroyed, contact 2 now listing portside, she appears to be spinning out of control!"

[IMI REPORTS: 5 INCOMING LARGE CLASS PROJECTILES, KILLING WITH HEL.]

As the second salvo of 720 mill railgun projectiles hit true, the first contact's reactor detonated while its stored ammunition quickly cooked off in the bright explosion which followed, the second contact appeared to have lost a large part of its portside thrusters, causing it to spin out of control in that direction due to the now unstable thrust vectoring.

"Navigation ahead full, bring us portside and clear out of the debris field. Weapons, target contact 2 and destroy it."

"Navigation confirms. New course ahead full, bringing us out of the debris field by turning portside, bearing 275."

With the last remaining contact basically a sitting duck, the tension on the bridge cooled down a bit as Ingenuity started navigating outside of the debris field which had been created by the now destroyed contact 1. Breathing a slight sigh, Admiral Simmons once more sat down in his chair before addressing Dax.

"I'm getting too old for this."

"Then think about how I'm feeling. I just want to retire with the girls on some farm and laze around all day."

The Ingenuity was eventually joined by the rest of the 3rd strike group, the system was quickly secured before multiple beacons were deployed to detect FTL jumps, then the group moved on, tearing deeper into Emergence territory, making a clear beeline towards the outer citadel while other strike groups stomped out resistance along both flanks.

-

"It seems we weren't needed this time either."

"Yeah, that just means more time off I guess."

Looking to the ceiling above the door as the light indicating a general alert went out, Lilly sighed deeply as she once more wasn't needed to beat the Emergence. It had been like this the last few weeks, even though the 3rd strike group had already reclaimed countless systems for intelligent life, it had hardly met anything more than just sparse resistance. To make it even more boring for the girls (and Ifrit), there had yet to be any land or station invasion, as this section of space was mostly empty save for the occasional large class orbital space station which was just nuked from a distance instead of risking invading, it seemed like they wouldn't be needed before reaching the outer citadel itself, where all 7 of the system's planets had been heavily fortified and had to be reconquered one by one.

"We'll be busy when the time comes. Want to spar Ifrit?"

"Sure~✿"

Seeing as there was nothing else to do other than remain prepared, Alice left with Ifrit to spar while Solaris continued silently reading the romance book she had been recommended by Rin, Lia who was ever faithful to Solaris remained at her side in case she needed a refreshment, leaving Mare, Lilly and Rin who was always with them to figure out how they could kill their boredom.

"Want to play some cards? That one you taught us last time was somewhat entertaining Rin."

"Mmm. Let's play."

With Mare's tail wagging at almost lighting speed as her eyes shone with excitement, Rin couldn't refuse her even if her life depended on it.

���Sure, but no gambling this time, it is against regulations."

"Eh? But that only makes it more fun."

"I'll tell Dax."

"Traitor!"

It wasn't only Dax's subordinates which had gotten complacent with their current streak of overwhelming victories against sparse resistance, but also a large part of the 3rd strike group who were inexperienced with longer campaigns as they had done nothing but just weather attacks from the Emergence for the last hundred years. While none in their right mind would call the Emergence intelligent in any way, shape or form it also wasn't stupid. As the 3rd strike group continued its advance into Emergence territory the group increased its distance from safe territory and supplies, something which was potentially deadly under the wrong circumstances.

Even the best army will fall apart in no time if it is cut off from its supply lines.