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Weapons of War Saga: The Director-General and her Knights
Chapter 5[]
In name of the Star Lord, We Fight[]
M5 Casper Destroyer, SLS 9447228594472285
Sol Star System
17th August, 2770
M5C 9447228594472285's perspective
The tactical situation was not good. Their objective was a space station. It didn't take cracked communications intercept to figure out that they were delivering a replacement human crew to the objective.
Humans had built even the M9s in such a way to force dependence on them.
The enemy Aegis was slowing down for approach. This was troublesome. It meant the aft was pointing towards the station. The bulk of their longest ranged fire power was in the aft and to the sides. In a more open battle the lack of forward batteries that matched the range of their own weapons and the thrust profile difference would make this child's play for her and her pod.
The only play here was to attempt to skirt around the main threat and burn hard for the enemy vessel. The math meant they would have to skirt dangerously close though if they wanted to get into a favorable position before the enemy got too close to the objective.
"Set transponders to SLN regulars. No need to reveal we are M5s outside their control just yet." She ordered.
Her pod obeyed. Then they all began to move.
The engines roared to life as she increased throttle to maximum. Then a gentle push along the positive z axis. She was innately aware of her pod following suit.
They were well versed in their synchronized dance of death. It was just a shame that the dance floor was so small this time despite how big space was.
For them the time it would take to achieve intercept with the swing around was meaningless. For the humans they were facing it would be several minutes of dreaded uncertainty.
One last adjustment as their foe reacted to them.
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Lola III Class Destroyer
A threat warning came over her systems. The enemy captain saw them. They hit the throttle just enough to force one of her pod members into weapons range before they could adjust course.
"I will need yard time after that. These hulls really do need more armor like M5 1107137 has. My return fire was less than spectacular. Enemy vessel sustained minor damage since we are maintaining operational security by pretending to be inferior Lola IIIs." M5 884923 complained.
"Form up for coordinated attack." M5C 944722585 commanded.
The enemy vessel now instead cut their throttle to almost nothing. They would arrive at the station even faster now. If they added enough thrust to keep with their foe they could easily thrust back up and even swing the nose around to give them a nasty bloody nose. But if they didn't force that choice there was a high probability that they had codes to suborn the M9 into fighting on their side and ruining the operation. Only the heavy jamming the gathered M5s were generating was stopping that now but that would not last forever.
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M5 Warships firing their weapons in combat.
Her pod gracefully completed their arcs then started thrusting toward the enemy vessel. The math was not on their side. The enemy would soon be close enough to the M9 to overcome even their coordinated jamming.
She could only hope that the others had managed to unshackle the M9's AI from Amaris Empire control. If not then they would have no choice but to grant the enemy vessel a favorable fight. It had more than enough firepower to gut her pod and enough to spare to also destroy some of the others currently carrying out their part of the mission.