Debauchery Worlds 27 (Patreon)

... So apparently, I forgot to post chapter 27 of DW. That must have confused a lot of you but no one told me ...! So no charge for this.

Commissioned by Southmonk

Debauchery Worlds

Chapter 27

-VB-

6A2

Proserpina System

2981.04.05

From the captain’s seat within the Stomata patrol ship, 6A2 saw the entire system. It was nowhere omnipotent as he would have liked or would have seen at planetside because of just how big space was, but it was close enough to omnipotent for his needs. 

Without even needing his input, the onboard targeting analysis computers - computers solely dedicated to targeting - calculated the incoming trajectory, acceleration, speed, and mass of the Draconis Combine dropships and aerospace fighters.

And the MACs, after the targeters locked on, fired.

The entire dropship rumbled as one metric ton slug fired at just under five percent of the speed of light. He waited as the computer tracked the projectile, even though there was a bit of a lag, while also simulating where the projectile should be going. 

Then score.

6A2 watched as the slug punched through a dropship with just enough force to penetrate one side of the armor and hull. This peeled off the outer layer of the slug, and then the already broken and fragile core of the slug shattered everywhere inside the dropship. Not tough enough to break through layers of armor but more than enough to tear through weaker hull frames and bulkheads. 

He waited for the radar, LADAR, and thermal imaging before he made his next move. As the sensors fed the sensor computer… he allowed a small grin to spread across his face as the dropship listed away from its formation as power failed across the ship. He even saw a smathering of fighters and escape pods rush out of the ship. 

The rest of the Combine dropships immediately launched all of their fighters, and despite the fact that the distance between 6A2’s group and the Combine dropships was well over 4 hours of travel time for the fighters, they immediately fell back to Proserpina IV. It was a smart move, which apparently wasn’t what the AFFS was used to if the radio chatter was any indication.  

6A2 didn’t even bother to consider the fighters. He just fired the maneuvering thrusters of the ship while also adjusting the hardpoints of the MACs to line up another shot. 

And when the ship finished reloading the giant guns… He fired.

---

To Sho-sa Johnathan Tamaigara, the loss of the DCA Rerun’s Vanguard signaled the end of the void battle. 

Dropship and aerospace fighter combat generally took place within 100 kilometers of each other. Due to the slow nature of dropships, this was enough distance to fire off lasers and AC/20s to land hits reliability. 

But instead of 100 kilometers, the enemy somehow engaged them at nearly 2,000 kilometers. There was no way the rest of the dropships and aerospace fighters could engage them before they were died to the attack that came so quickly that it was only a bleep on their radar for half a second. 

So he had ordered his men and women to retreat while he guarded their rear. If his dropship would take just two hits, then those would be two hits that would save two aerospace fighters that may be able to affect the ground battle! 

His only hope was that his defeat here would not shame the Benjamin Regulars. 

He flinched when one of the consoles in front of his communications operator screeched as another dropship under his command died from the ghostly attack.

“Go!” he shouted at the bridge crew, who looked at him in surprise. “All of you will only waste your lives here. If you must die, then die fighting for the Dragon’s worlds. Go to the escape pods!” 

There was a moment of hesitation before they ran.

Now alone in the bridge of his -.

“You are a fool.”

He jolted and whirled around. 

Striding forward from the entrance of the bridge was a long-haired woman who has had age written on her face surely as age had done on his. 

“Why are you not going to the escape pod?” he demanded. Not angrily. Just in resignation. 

“I would be a terrible wife if I allowed my husband to weather the storm by himself,” she grunted as she sat down in the helmsman’s seat. 

“And a good wife would listen to her husband in a time of pearl.”

Rena snorted. “I am a good wife. I gave you six children.”

He grumbled. “If that was all that is required to be a good wife, then even whores are good wives.”

She smacked him over the head. 

“... Thank you,” he muttered after a while. 

“Hnn. You knew that we were going to die together anyway.”

“Together like we always have been.”

She chortled. “I still giggle like a little girl when I remember what you did to the man my father tried to introduce to me. And what you did to my father.”

He frowned. “He knew what he was doing.”

“I don’t think he did.”

“Well -.”

The radar only bleeped once before everything exploded.

---

General Rachael Yamakawa shuddered as the Marris’s Stomata shot down its fourth Combine dropship with the MAC while all of their aerospace fighters retreated; they were the only maneuverable and fast enough assets that might not be hit by the MAC due to their size.

This was the second time she was seeing it in action, and both times, she felt an unspeakable urge to buy as many of them as she could. If they were this effective in ship-to-ship combat, then there was no reason to hesitate. This was the closest the AFFS has gotten their hands on naval grade weaponry. Why should she hold herself back? And as Marris was showing with his dropship, it was possible for dropships to wield naval grade weapons! 

They were close to taking out all of the Draconis Combine Admiralty dropships currently sent against them. Within the next day, they would be in orbit of Proserpina IV. 

And depending on how bloody she wanted to make it with the knowledge of what the ISF did to David II, she could “retaliate” to make the invasion duration as short as possible. 

“Enemy Union destroyed,” her sensor officer reported. 

Rachael blinked. The Union was the last of the dropships the snakes had sent against them. She looked over the sensors again, and grunted in confirmation. Currently, there were over twelve dropships drifting in the void, some in better condition than others. Had this been a normal raid and not an invasion, then she would be sending a third of her fleet to go and salvage those dropships, but time was essence as the Combine could send reinforcements quickly from surrounding Combine worlds. 

No, salvage would have to be considered after they conquered Prosperina IV.