Escalation of Hostility Part 4

When the Phaelen High Command lost contact with Haelix III the initial reaction was mild curiosity. So, they waited for a time for communication to re-establish.

When it didn't, a fleet was sent to investigate. The system was wiped out and it became clear that the communications network was destroyed first. From the evidence no ship, military, commercial or civilian made it out of Haelix III. The planetesimal showed no life signs and was so badly damaged that it would be far too unstable to recolonize. It did not take long to determine that it was human weapons that were used.  With wrath on their minds, they assembled the largest invasion fleet in the history of both races.

When they attacked the nearest human system, Dreus, it was as if they were expected.  A volley of missiles were fired the moment the first Phaelen ship arrived. 

When the rest of the invasion fleet left phased space, the two fleets wasted no time. 

The four Phaelen capital ships launched the first barrage, a wall of plasma charges that slammed into the ships at the forefront of the human defense fleet.  Damaging many but destroying none.

With organized ferocity the Arn Consortium Forces responded in kind, laying a steady stream of missiles at the four capital ships.  The humans kept their only capital ship out of the central mass of their fleet, as if protecting it.

Noticing the maneuver two Phaelen capitals moved in to engage it, firing plasma charges as they approached.

Suddenly the Arn capital ship, along with a few of the bigger vessels fired a new weapon the Phaelen had never before seen.  A gravity wave weapon that focused massive waves of gravitons toward the enemy vessels, bypassing shields and causing damage directly to their main structures.

Before the two Phaelen capitals were able to retreat back they were hit with another wave of gravitons, heavily damaging many systems on each ship.

As if sensing victory the Arn fleet moved in unison to destroy the heavily damaged capitals, firing one more wave of the new weapon.

But little damage was inflicted, as the ships had already moved too far away, their retreat too well covered by the Phaelen mid-sized warships.

Quite unpredictably, the Arn fleet turned about and headed for a phase jump location.  It appeared that the battle was intended to be brief, to both test the graviton weapon and to cause heavy damage. 

When the Phaelen fleet scanned Dreus II they found no humanoid life on it.  Sure, it was bombarded, reducing its usability by humans later, but it was clear that the population was evacuated long before the battle took place.

[To be continued in part 5]