Center Worlds - Spark

Clanworld Michelab Orbit -3 BA

The worst battle was the last of the war, the battle for the Clanworld Michelab itself. Finally driven back to their home system, Michelab forces rallied for a final almost suicidal strike against the massed Camelin forces. Two TGX ships, numbers 2 and 4, on the Camelin side, faced off against ships 6 and 9 for Michelab.

“Commander Kerilac, yield and we can discuss an honorable surrender. We don’t need to have more bloodshed, especially here.” Was the challenge from the Camelin forces.

Michelab replied with silence and weapon ports arming. They were now fully prepared for the Superiority fighters launched from the Camelin TGX’s and their strike benefits were mostly nullified by better tracking and targeting systems. The explosions and destruction laid by four ships of the line were tremendous and were spread across four million kims of space which included both Michelab moons and most of the orbital platforms, all of which fell.

With the TGX-4 beginning to burn from the many weapon strikes, Gya pulled back and began to swing around, to try and open up another angle for attack, while waves of N’Goura cruisers swarmed around the massive capital ships, adding fire and weapon strikes to burning and melted armour across all four massive hulls.

Caught in the crossfire between two opposing TGX warships, the TGX-6 very quickly lost armor integrity and began to burn internally, then withdrew, signaling surrender as its weapons went dark. All that was left was the TGX-9, as solidly built as the -2, with as many weapon ports and possibly more armor.

Across a hundred thousand kims, three starships traded hyperlight weapon strikes, the TGX-9 having to split its focus between two opponents, while both the -2 and -4 began to concentrate fire on its rear quarter, attempting to punch a hole in its fuel tanks and cripple the opposing ship.

One lucky shot from the -4 knocked a quad of engines out of alignment and the -9 spun around on its axis before cutting off the venting drives, but as it did and attempted to stabilize, its forward section struck the anchor for the Michelab skyhook a glancing blow. As the Camelin forces looked on in horror, the asteroid anchor broke free, and the skyhook began to wobble, then buckle under the release of tension. Ripples traveled down the 25 thousand kim length of the cable and they saw the entire length shudder, then the ripples gained strength as the entire skyhook shattered into sections, some falling into the atmosphere and others being flung away at faster than escape velocity.

The stricken cruiser continued to fight, weapons lancing out to blow against the armor of the oncoming battlecruisers even as it began to slide into the upper atmosphere. Both Camelin ships broke off and pulled into a higher orbit, allowing the Michelab ship to stabilize itself as Commander Camelin sent a final message, demanding the surrender of the TGX-9.

“You’ll burn in the fires of Helva along with me, Camelin!” Came the static-filled reply from Commander Kerilac as the TGX-9 opened up all engines and began to rapidly accelerate straight toward the TGX-2.

“Full engine blow!” Ryo shouted, knowing that raw inertia meant there was no way his ship could dodge the oncoming mass of the other battlecruiser.

As the TGX-9 plowed towards the other battlecruiser, it was suddenly struck a mighty blow and was pushed off course by the combined tractor units of the TGX-4 as it had swung fully around the remains of the skyhook to come up from underneath the other ship, pushing it off course so that it screamed by the TGX-2 with only a few scant kims to spare.

“Full shields, their reactors are critical!” Gya yelled into the comm as the TGX-9 began to glow from internal energy buildup. Both Camelin TGX ships began to pivot to expose their armored drive units as the TGX-9 detonated.

The flash was visible through the entire system as the flare from 6 primary reactors all exploded instead of releasing their energy as propulsive. The TGX-9 briefly outshone the central star of Chelab as it became a tiny star itself. That faded, and the streams of debris and waves of radiation that followed did their version of destruction and carnage.

The two Camelin battlecruisers survived, radiation streaming past their shields to impact the atmosphere and cause a high-level glow that would end with a shower of deadly radiation over the next few months across the face of the planet. Debris streamed in all directions, chunks of the TGX-9 hull impacting the shields and armor of the other two ships, the planetary atmosphere, and flying off into the vacuum.

Clanworld Michelab was shattered. The loss of the skyhook had destroyed the capital city and a swath of land almost a thousand kims long when the cable fell from the sky. The fourteen-cycle war had devastated the planetary economy, and with the war now over, the death toll rose dramatically. Almost all of the Michelab leaders were dead, either by Kerilac or Jasinlo insiders or by the war itself, leaving nobody of blood left to rule the clan.

Clan Michelab was gone, with no blood relations, the clan dissolved, Clan Kerilac fell to the last soldier, as did Clan Jasinlo. The war had a Hablis cost that was almost too high to count. With three Clans falling in the space of a few days. As Leader of Clan Camelin, it was Ryo who got to enjoy the spoils of war, he looked over the shattered and burning planet spread before him, the line of destruction from the skyhook easily visible from orbit, and wondered aloud “If this is victory, I almost wish for defeat.”

The loss of the TGX-9 meant that organized resistance also fell, as the security and armies of Clan Michelab lost their leadership and became so much rabble, with guns. To most citizens, a Clan War never touched them, as it was always the royalty fighting among themselves, almost a sport. In this case, it directly impacted them as the Michelab, Kerilac, and Jasinlo Clan leaders had forced the general population to involve themselves, and had broken the back of the planet’s economy and production in the process. Michelab was penniless and starving.

The first people on the ground were security teams who were trained in disaster relief. They began to assist those most badly injured and to prepare landing fields for the hundreds of shuttles and small cruisers that were now being summoned to bring relief to a stricken planet where tens of millions of citizens needed immediate aid for basic survival needs.

Pockets of resistance were found and quashed and as the general population realized this new group of people were there to help, the cries for aid and assistance began to rise until it was like the entire planet cried out for help. Help came. As Clan Camelin rallied all of the other Clans behind it, showing a true understanding of what the Confederacy really should be, hundreds of ships streamed towards Michelab, carrying food, cargo, medical needs, supplies, whatever could be loaded was brought. The planet was broken, and the lives of millions were at stake.

While food and medical supplies were ferried in, other ships ran the length of devastation from the fallen cable and worked to extinguish the massive fires that still burned, suppressing and reducing the damage to the atmosphere before it crippled the biosphere of the plentiful world.

Yet more ships moved around in orbit shunting and pulling debris out of low and medium orbit to ensure it did not drop down on the planet and rain debris down in a shower of fiery death upon the vulnerable populace.

It took only a few short weeks to stabilize the planetary biome and begin the massive task of rebuilding and feeding the millions now left helpless beneath the remains of war. Ryo officially took possession of the Clanworld from the regional government, which was happy to do whatever it took to ensure no more fighting, they had hundreds of thousands of injured and homeless to deal with, and battle was not on the cards anymore.