The enemy assault will occur after my strike craft have begun decelerating to avoid overshooting Footfall, meaning that, as the enemy closes in, all of my strike-craft and shuttles are flying backwards. My void craft are still going incredibly fast though, so the enemy Swiftdeath Fighters and Doomfire Bombers also have to travel quickly to catch up to them.

  Yes, that’s a ‘No shit Sherlock’ type statement but it’s important because the relative velocities of the two sides determine if the enemy is going to make a single pass at high speed, then loop round for another attack hours later, or try something else.

  For example, they could match speeds and travel perpendicular to us, then force an engagement similar to capital ships where they line up and shoot each other until both sides are a burning wreck, or they could slowly slide through our formation, taking horrendous casualties, but give themselves plenty of time to pick their targets and cause as much damage as possible. They could also approach at a moderate speed, taking advantage of our need to decelerate to dash in and out of our formation like sharks.

  These decisions have to be made hours in advance because it doesn’t matter if it’s void craft or void ships, it takes just as much time to change direction as it does to create your original heading. Other forces, such as solar wind, just aren’t significant enough to have a meaningful effect on velocity.

  From their final approach, I observe that the opposing Swiftdeath Fighters and Doomfire Bombers intend to attempt a single pass rather than risk a dogfight against an unknown foe. They might not know what my shuttles and strike craft are, but they will be able to detect their size and mass and know that they don’t match known Imperial void craft. Given that I’ve been blasting Karrad Vall's forces with a message declaring that I’m a Magos Explorator, this first strike is a test.

  I did not think that Karad Vall, a cultist of the Ruinous Powers, would care much about the preservation of his forces, but he’s trying to create as many options for himself as possible, much to my annoyance.

  Igraine Yorath has two possible responses against the probe: inflict maximum casualties on the enemy to minimise their choices, using a thick wall of strike craft with the shuttles spread out behind them, or to minimise information gathering by forming a large ball and dispersing the shuttles among the strike craft, hiding their capabilities among the confusion of combat.

  Our primary goal, to draw out the enemy strike-craft, has been achieved and my hidden void craft have already snuck away and are heading for the enemy void ships. They should reach them as Karrad Vall’s fleet is approximately five AU from Footfall.

  I care more about the preservation of my shuttles than anything else as it will determine how effective my relief force is at gaining control of Footfall and recovering the docked Imperial vessels.

  Tithe-Fleet Calixis and Battlefleet Koronus will have no effect on Stellar Fleet SOL’s battle with Karrad Vall’s Wolfpack, as he calls his fleet, as they’re unlikely to catch up in time to be useful. What matters is the perception that we’re doing everything we can to aid Imperial forces for squeezing concessions, assigning blame, and tempting Karrad Vall away from Spear of Commerce.

  I’d much rather have Caligos, Lyre, and my own strike craft guarding our combined fleet but, as ever, politics and greed have a far greater role to play in war than the people actually fighting would like.

  Once again the question is one that has stumped Ork shamans for millennia. What will get the most gunz to the fight, force or deception?

  The enemy void craft approach in multiple long lines. Igraine Yorath reforms my void craft from neat layers of wedges into a huge sphere. The outer layer is filled with Fury Interceptors. The rest is an even mix of Fury Interceptors, Starhawk Bombers, Sagitta-Class Interceptors, Macross-Class Bombers, and Class-1 and Class-2 D-POTs. The Class-3 D-POTS occupy the centre with the Thunderhawks and assorted Imperial shuttles.

  At the speed everyone is traveling, the entire exchange lasts barely a handful of seconds. As the enemy void craft approach, they fire their guns recklessly at the centre of my formation, trying to pick out the largest targets. My void craft alter their own orientation, ceasing their constant deceleration and fire back. For a brief moment, lascannons, plasma, and metal shards streak through the void in a furious exchange.

  The leading edge of the enemy strike craft disintegrates in clouds of glowing metal and burning gasses. The outer layer of Fury Interceptors fares poorly against such heavy fire and their shattered remains spin out of control, some flying with such force that collisions with their wingmen are inevitable. Fortunately, Imperial strike-craft are tough and while the debris does cause additional casualties, they are few. The same cannot be said of the rival designs used by chaos forces. Their weapons are just as deadly, but the more fragile enemy void-craft take notably more losses.

  Undeterred, Karrad Vall’s forces continue the rest of their planned manoeuvre, pulling some truly hellish gravities as they split up around my sphere of void craft and reorient themselves so that they continue to face towards the sphere as they slide around it in eighty-eight lines. My own forces also follow suit, reminding me of a sea urchin or porcupine as they readjust their orientation. None of the shuttles attempt the manoeuvre though as their thrusters are configured for precision, not speed.

  Next comes a huge wave of missiles. My sphere lights up like a star as vast quantities of countermeasures and CIWS are triggered, enough to completely overwhelm the sensors of every Chaos and Imperial void craft and their ordinance. Here, my Dark Age of Technology void craft have the advantage.

  Even through the titanic exchange of fire and protective screen of allied void craft, my strike craft and shuttles are able to pick out the enemy strike craft and their ordinance and lay into them. Unlike the initial exchange, metal slugs and plasma fire are of little use as the angle makes it too risky to lead the shots sufficiently while accounting for surrounding allies. This time, it is the lascannons that rip out from the sphere, much like light reflecting off a disco ball.

  The enemy strike-craft are far less limited and their new position lets all of them fire, rather than just the front rows, and they tear into my sphere for a fraction of a second. As they flash past, they attempt to spread out and scatter, hoping to minimise the focus of my return fire.

  This turns out to be a mistake as my void craft release their own wave of missiles to chase after the retreating enemy, even as the bastards continue to fire everything they have at us, at this point relying more on sheer quantity of fire for lucky hits than aimed shots.

  Predictably, they too, launch their countermeasures. Calligos’s missiles aren’t that special, but mine come from a crusade era Space Marine STC. They accelerate harder, are far more difficult to deceive, burn for longer, and pack a harder punch. The difference was seemingly meaningless against the Drukhari, but against these Swiftdeath Fighters and Doomfire Bombers, designs birthed from the Hellforges in the Eye of Terror, the difference is devastating.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  At first, the enemy strike-craft are able to deal with the huge swarm of missiles coming their way. They don’t launch any more of their own, though current estimates suggest they launched half of their missiles on their first pass. Then the Macross-bombers get involved.

  Fury Interceptors typically carry four missiles. Swiftdeath Fighters bring six to each engagement. Starhawk Bombers carry ten missiles and forty plasma bombs. Doomfire Bombers are fairly similar to Macross Bombers, abandoning the bombs for melta missiles or other similar payloads. Both designs have to focus fire to do as much damage as a Starhawk Bomber on a void ship and they’re far more effective in an anti-void craft or anti-tank role.

  There are many different variations of Doomfire Bombers all varying in size slightly depending on whatever demented Dark Mechanicum Tech-Priest thought would best suit their twisted agenda. Reading between the scattered reports, the Doomfire Bomber has a maximum average of thirty-five missiles.

  The Macross is an entirely different beast. It can hold many external missiles along its seventy-eight metre external span, usually twenty along each half of its blended wing. You could even externally mount a couple of torpedoes if you really wanted to, though they would look quite ridiculous as the torpedo would be as long as the strike-craft and far too vulnerable to enemy fire.

  The Macross’s key feature are the internal magazines that can be reloaded by the crew from its considerable cargohold. At ten metres tall, the Macross is half as tall as the Class-2 D-POT it’s based off but it can still carry half as much cargo, even with the space dedicated to the magazines and living space, as all the passenger capacity has been stripped out beyond a few emergency jump seats.

  If a Macross wants to unload four waves of twenty missiles in five seconds there is absolutely nothing stopping it from doing so.

  The Class-3 D-POTs aren’t short of ordinance either.

  The initial wave of some 8000 Fury Interceptor and Starhawk Bomber missiles are led astray by bright lights, hot flares, and fake EM signatures. However, the mass of explosions partially covers the approach of 5000 additional, far more dangerous missiles, guided by the Data-Guardians of ancient shuttles and the prayers and oils of their crews.

  Advanced missiles, following their preloaded estimates and exchanging data with their launch platforms, streak through the debris unimpeded, searching for their targets. The bright lights of their fellow death seekers illuminate the enemy hulls and their image recognition send the Machine-Spirits chasing, not just after heat signatures and noisy augurs, but the shapes and shadows of the fell winged metal beasts that have torn away at the hulls of their precious machines. They know where to look and are not fooled by the enemy’s meagre deception. For even if they were to be blinded once again, they would remember where the enemy was supposed to be and detonate anyway.

  Cursed pilots, barely held together by the blessings of their dark gods and the corrupting lifeforce of the machines they are welded to, slip towards unconsciousness as their brains boil from their extreme manoeuvres and rapid calculations. They scream for mercy into the void as their strike-craft are battered apart by vengeful ordinance. Their pleas are meaningless: through my third eye, I watch as their souls are snatched by the greedy parasites they worship.

  Imprisoned Machine-Spirits, lost within illogical circuits and sorcerous cogitators, cackle with madness at the destruction they have unleashed with little care for their pitted hulls. They are too tightly bound to take action without their pilots. They broadcast their final moments for all adherents of the Machine-God to hear and despair.

  Bound demons, fused to machines, their essence cursed to power impossible engines and guard against the God Emperor’s fervent followers purifying fire, curse and howl as their machines are obliterated. Their flesh ignites as their bloody protections fail and Alpia’s grand presence sends them burning back into the Immaterium, their remains fading in the sea of golden fire that fills the Warp.

  I let out a long sigh, sending bubbles through the liquid I am submerged in. My adrenaline quickly fades as my artificial systems bring my brain down to more sustainable levels of stimulation.

  The short exchange was far more destructive than I thought possible. I had read that the Swiftdeath Fighters and Doomfire Bombers, well known for their superlative performance in the Gothic War, 139.M.41 to 160.M41, were more fragile than Imperial strike-craft; the Ruinous Powers care little for the lives of their followers, only the propagation of destruction and their cruel plots. I had not realised it was quite so stark a difference.

  Over the next minute, augers pulse their mechanisms, cogitators calculate, and Machine-Spirits cry victory to their loyal crews.

  The enemy strike craft continue to fire to little effect as their own momentum sends them hurtling through the void, far away from my own forces. Their hulls burn with cursed flames as the slaves within are forced to sacrifice themselves, appeasing the dark mechanisms with their blood to seal the battered machines, barely holding together from the furious ordinance of my void craft who follow the enemy’s spiteful retreat with searing light and explosive bolts.

  The numbers flow into my mind, unheaded by my opinion of their results. Karrad Vall has lost 44% of his strike craft.

  My own losses are a lot lighter at 17%. I want to be happy about this. I really do. It’s a spectacular result.

  Karrad Vall’s assault was not without success however. His strike-craft focused everything they had at the largest craft in my relief force. The Class-3 D-POTs have taken a beating. They might be tough, but over 5520 strike-craft is a lot of fire power, enough to bring down a cruiser, let alone the equivalent of a flying Titan.

  I sent sixteen Class-3 D-POTs with the relief force. Thirteen remain. Two held Penitents, the other Mechanised Infantry. Decades of training, a Planetary Governor's ransom worth of resources, and thousands of young lives cut short without a chance to go down fighting.

  I am more upset about the loss of the Penitents’ borrowed D-POTs and their crews than the Penitents themselves. A vague twinge of guilt from long eroded values tells me I should value them all equally.

  No longer can I bring myself to do so.

  Some Heralds and Penitents might still live among the wreckage and the Imperial shuttles are quick to begin rescue operations.

  The Class-1 and Class-2 D-POTs are almost unscathed, bringing my total losses to at least 19,000-20,000 depending on how many shots penetrated the surviving Class-3 D-POTs.

  However, for all I know the Penitents threatened to riot and filled the cargo holds as well as the passenger decks. It’s not like they needed their cargo trucks or messenger bikes to assault a void station. I don’t have immediate access to the Penitent’s database and no one has reported anything went wrong with the loading of troops.

  A Class-3 is comfortable at 6,000, and outfitted for 9,000, but the life-sustainer is rated for 21,000. I wouldn’t want to spend three and a half days stuck in a seat or curled up on an armoured deck just to shoot someone in the face, but that doesn’t mean other people, especially Penitents, led by fools with something to prove, wouldn’t be willing to try.

  The Space Marines lost a single Thunderhawk: 5 marines and twenty-five auxiliaries. I am so happy Odhran spread his marines out. If he’d put 30 marines in a single Thunderhawk we’d have lost half of the new marines less than a year after we got them.

  The biggest loss are the Fury Interceptors, who bore the brunt of the assault. 690 of them are spinning inexorably towards the Furibundus.

  All that remains is to see if Karrad Vall will risk a second pass.

  I pray that he will not.

  HERE. Many thanks to Brian for putting this together in their spare time.

  Warhammer 40k Lexicanum, , and . I've also enjoyed opinion pieces such as: , The via Gamespot, and . While not strictly 40k, they are good for inspiration and IRL explanations.