Lunar Eclipse

The node drifted around it’s star, as it had ever since this system had been cleared to allow for it’s construction. Signals relayed from dozens of fleets were processed through the systems contained within, pulses sent at predefined intervals back to the main cluster while incoming messages from the heart of the network were relayed to the outer reaches of the tendrils. This was it’s purpose. The disruption reported by a pair of sentry units on the edges of controlled space had been investigated, but the fleet that had been dispatched had not yet reported locating anything beyond the remnants of the units.

A ripple at the edge of it’s sensor range caused little interest from the bulk of the gestalt consciousness that made up the node. There were no paths that reached this system that had not already been saturated with sensors or sentries. Nothing of harm could therefore logically interfere with the operation of the cluster - that was why the node was located here after all, it was a safe location.

Dustin let out a low whistle as the massive machine came up on the main screen. “Defia wasn’t kidding when she said it’d be the size of a planet.” He said, looking over the data Meli and Sola were doing their best to process as rapidly as possible. The node was vast - a giant ball of Fractal-black metal orbiting the distant star, it’s surface pock-marked with transmission towers and openings. “Think they’ve spotted us?” he asked the synthetic woman hovering by his side.

It took a moment for Defia to reply, one hand drumming on her hip in a most un-Fractal manner. “Statement.” She said at last, “I believe they have. However, logically there is no way a hostile **** could have reached this system based on the known flight paths they have access to. Therefore, there is probably disunity within the node as to the importance of our arrival. We should take advantage.”

With a nod to Sammie who’d just thrown a bottle of water and some food down her throat as there wasn’t any immediate need for combat piloting, Dustin signalled for Emely to hail the rest of the fleet. His orders were simple, and to the point. “Go in and blow the hell out of that thing. Start firing as soon as I do.”

Sammie grinned and powered up the thrusters, Sola skating forward at the vanguard of the human fleet. “Gonna be a coupla hours before we’re in range tho Captain, unless you want to try sniping with the big gun?” she called over her shoulder, frowning at the same time as if she could push their craft faster by sheer **** of will.

Dustin shook his head. “No - we hold fire until we can bring everything to bear. No point in alerting whatever defences that thing might have when we’ve only got the one weapon that can reach.” He glanced over at Meli. “Any sign they’re waking up?” His wife shook her head, the tension growing across the bridge as the fleet flew ever closer. Dropping into a firefight would have been better than this - this slow, ominous flight across the vastness of space towards the looming Fractal node.

The click of excitement from Yril’k’s mandibles let Dustin know they’d reached firing range. His desire to break the tension of their long flight from the jump point warred with his knowledge that the ships behind them in the fleet didn’t have Sola’s full range, and the closer they got the better. Ten more minutes. Twenty. Thirty… Meli’s head snapped up from the sensors, ears flickering into alarm. “They’re reacting!” She called out, as the massive facility started to shift, holes on the surface opening wider as ships began to lift off from deep within.

“All guns, all ships fire!” Dustin shouted, Yril’k’s chitin rattling over her console as she complied. The first shot of Sola’s big gun lanced forward, punching through a line of half-launched Fractal craft within one of the hangars that had just been revealed; where the vessels were lined up, the beam clipped multiple reactors. Fire blossomed outward, a wave of destruction rippling over the remaining vessels that were trying to launch right as the rest of the human fleet opened fire.

Defia had at least given them some idea of what to expect - Dustin grinned as a squadron of five vessels all fired as one, a giant communications array on one side of the node turning into space debris under the combined impact, before the ships came around to re-join the rest of the human fleet. Sending that many ships away from the bulk of their forces had been a risk - but knocking out the node’s long range antenna, with which it apparently talked to the greater cluster? That was worth the potential cost.

Fractal vessels were coming online now in greater and greater number - but humanity had learned from the engagements they’d already had. Where before point defence had struggled to track the manoeuvrable smaller craft, now the defence grids of multiple ships worked together to turn the space around them into a killzone. Watching the craft under his command adopt what was effectively phalanx tactics to fight was somewhat surreal for Dustin - strategies used in Earth warfare thousands of years prior proving brutally, crushingly effective against monsters from the darkness of space.

Sola’s gun spat forth destruction again, slamming into the hull of one of the larger Fractal vessels as it moved free of the node. The ship listed, but kept coming - something he’d prepared for, as Sola’s secondary weapons focussed their fire into the hole in the hull that her main gun had made. While the lesser weapons weren’t much good against the Fractal’s external reactive armour, once they got a clean path inside a Fractal ship it was another matter. The hostile vessel’s list grew until it floated dead in space, blocking the path out of the hangar for other vessels until the Fractal’s own guns sliced it in half.

More and more green shimmers appeared on screen as the node adjusted, defensive turrets peppering the incoming humans with fire as the node literally stripped the weapons from damaged vessels. The synthetic nature of their foe was apparent as entire machines were ripped from ship-hulls by long tendrils of Fractal mass, then grafted onto the exterior of the planet-sized behemoth as it realised it’s mobile forces were little more than target practice for the attacking humans.

The increasing incoming fire gave Dustin pause. This wasn’t a foe their current fleet could hope to defeat in a head on engagement - while every moment they fought did more damage to the cluster, they were after all a fleet of science vessels sniping at a giant. Then, he saw it - through the haze of battle data on the screen, a chance. “Sammie, get us into that hangar we hit.” He shouted over the bridge noise.

As the pilot started weaving them between the dead hulks that had once been Fractal vessels, Dustin turned to Emely. “Tell the fleet to start pulling back, but keep up the fire. We’re going inside that thing.” That earned him a look of shock from the Feliax woman as she started transmitting to the rest of the vessels, and a curt nod from Yril’k. “You’k intend for us to hit’k their reactor’k core?” The Vex’ess warrior said, eyes narrowing as she flicked her console, Sola’s weapons vaporising a fighter that had got too close.

“It’s the only way we’re winning this fight, and Sola’s the only ship with both guns to do it and shields to survive the blast.” Dustin replied, then grimaced. “You and Meli handle the targeting, blow us a path through.” As the insect woman nodded, he flicked his communicator on. “All hands, brace - we’re going to go kill this thing.” Then, taking a deep breath, he flicked to Rye’s private channel.

To say the bunny girl was unhappy about his plan was an understatement. Engineering was already running hot from combat, and she was having to rapidly rebalance the load between all four of Sola’s reactors as it was - to then have to do what Dustin was asking was a lot. After chewing his ear off for a good thirty seconds, however, she ended the call with “Just give me a heads up before ya fire on the reactor so I can try and keep our ass in one piece.”

Inside the node’s outer hull, fire and debris covered their path. Swarms of void-black drones exploded out of suddenly formed passageways as Sola swam more than flew through their foe; Defia’s knowledge and Meli’s skill after months of practice with the scanners coming together to help them navigate as Yril’k brought the guns to bear again and again, blowing chunks of Fractal mass out of their way as they drilled deeper into the vessel.

Suddenly, with a last detonation the space in front of them opened out - revealing a awe-inspiring chamber in which two monstrously large reactors hung like a pair of binary stars. Dustin winced when he saw them - they were far larger than anything he’d thought they’d uncover; even with her shields, this wouldn’t be fun for Sola. “Rye, we’re about to fire,” he said at a nod from Yril’k, then, sweeping his eyes over the bridge added “Let’s blow this thing up and go home.”