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Drakador_Chaos @ONI
Stantine felt confident as the smaller beasts finally emerged but to his horror the massive shape of the warpriest flew out of the mist.
”Computer, how did this happen?” he said horrified.
There are multiple possibilities. The enemy may have altered the course of the missiles, intercepted them, used countermeasures or evaded. Warpriests jaw shows signs of torpedo impact indicating it was hit.
The ring of fire with the eye in the center was most alarming though. Assuming it was to stop the fleet from escaping the eye he quickly ordered the AI to order the fleet to maneuver outside the ring while doing as little damage towards the fleets ability to fight. Power was immediately shifted away from the guns into the engines and shields. The more agile ships would turn in various directions and try to fly outside the ring of fire before it reached them, such as the Coventry destroyers, frigates and corvettes. Valuable but tanky ships such as the Sunrise’s would attempt to escape the ring by themselves while taking a few shots on the way. Shield heavy ships such as the Colony-class destroyers would fly in front of slow ships shielding it from enemy fire. Lastly the battlecruiser HMS Fortune would have three Colony destroyers shield half of it’s profile while its own, now recharged, shield took the other half of its fire. Instead of flying in separate directions, the ships split into two directions to account for the two seperate directions the bloodcult were coming from, one to the left and one to the right. The HMS Fortune was in the group closer to the smaller beasts. This time the fleet were using their main engines to escape and loosened their formation a little extra.

The UEG fleet came out from behind the mist. The lead fighter transmitted the information.
/Message
”The mist is blocking our communications. This message will transfer all the data from this encounter. Noteworthy information: fight at long range, the largest beast has a central weapon which you must evade at all costs.”

files on bloodcult weaponry
files on bloodcult defensive capabilities
files on bloodcult tactics

The files explain how the eye of doom weapon will suck in and destroy all ships close to it, how the optimal tactic is to flee from the beasts backwards while firing, how the beasts will try to flank you, adapt to new tactics and more. The GBE details how the noticed smaller weapons will not penetrate their armour, how even the large beasts can evade tracking fire and to prioritize evading the projectiles from the larger turrets.
The fighters stay to wait if the UEG has any information they’d like to share.

Drakador_Chaos
As the feared eye of doom detonated you could see the strain that was put on the royal navy ships as their engines all went into emergency burn. Thruster nozzles expanded and plasma rushed out in long streaks as they pushed against the strong pull. A few remaining Moonlight cruisers, some close destroyers and one damaged Sunrise cruiser, that had taken a hit to its engine started falling backward. The bow started tilting upwards. The entire ship rotating up and not being able to resist anymore, falling into the explosion, dwarfing the debris and unlucky frigates also doomed by the blast, and being annihilated. The ring had done significant damage to the shielding of the vessels, especially the battlecruiser HMS Fortune. At the sight of the bloodcult turning around Stantine could suspect nothing but a trick, but he would not let the warpriest get away.
"Turn the fleet around and pursue them."
Stantine looked at the fleet display as even more warships, and even supply ships were destroyed.
"Prepare firing sequence for particle lance's at the warpriests propulsion. Power to weapons and engines, I want all available batteries to destroy the warpriests propulsion systems."
The shattered fleet redirected their bow towards the fleeing bloodcult ships with their turrets always turned in the direction of the enemy. The gates and the nose of the ships with spinal weapons opened and the lance's point started heating up. The ships did not hesitate to focus fire into the back of the warpriest with nuclear railgun shells. The HMS Fortune did however not prepare to fire its spinal weapon as it had not finished charging.
"How long will this take?"
Gates opened. Preparing firing sequence. Protocols active. Targeting warpriest propulsion. Volley ready in 7 minutes.

Drakador_Chaos The fleet tries to take out the large orb while the smaller ships manoeuvre out of its way as it bears down on them. The larger cruisers and carriers begin to move as well. They concentrate their main coilgun batteries at the orb.

However, it was too late. A handful of the frigates and other smaller craft as well as a cruiser get pulled into the orbs. The ships detonate seconds after as the orb draws them in. The light from the blast causes those ships who managed to escape, their standard polarization for the bridge viewports to dampen instantaneously.

On the main carrier fleet status readouts begin appearing. More than half of the fleet's smaller craft are gone and the heavy cruiser Hollis was vaporized. No escape pod launches were detected.

KrankysFirebrand48 The UEG fleet came out from behind the mist. The lead fighter transmitted the information.
/Message
”The mist is blocking our communications. This message will transfer all the data from this encounter. Noteworthy information: fight at long range, the largest beast has a central weapon which you must evade at all costs.”
files on bloodcult weaponry
files on bloodcult defensive capabilities
files on bloodcult tactics

The files explain how the eye of doom weapon will suck in and destroy all ships close to it, how the optimal tactic is to flee from the beasts backwards while firing, how the beasts will try to flank you, adapt to new tactics and more. The GBE details how the noticed smaller weapons will not penetrate their armour, how even the large beasts can evade tracking fire and to prioritize evading the projectiles from the larger turrets.
The fighters stay to wait if the UEG has any information they’d like to share.

The information package had come a second too late as the large orb fired from the blood cult attack hit the UEG fleet. After a minute or two of disarray, the remaining ships continue to get back while the remaining smaller ships act as defence ships to watch for flanking,

As the cult ships begin to retreat, the UEG fleet continues to put distance between them and the cult. Back on the main carrier, the request for more reinforcements is sent out but it will take days to arrive. Days they do not have.

KrankysFirebrand48
ONI
Shells rained down on the back of the massive beast, although it was still heavily armored the focused fire of the fleet began tearing chunks of it's flesh out and more importantly some of it's engines, the beast in turn did not even seem to react, while they stoppped it from accellerating further it hadn't slowed down either, only a number of hidden manouvering thrusters still keeping it on course.
Notably even the smaller beasts seemed to disregard the fire on the Warpriest heading directly back to the portal, as if their reatreating order, or whatever it may have been that roared through the tear, was paramount to their objective.
The other notable things was the now even the mist seemed to be slowly retreating, being pulled back into the rift...

Drakador_Chaos The fire continues as the beasts retreat. The UEG reports to GBE command that the mist is being pulled back into the rift and the first wave is finished.

Since the battlefield is now clear, dropships begin ferrying wounded crew and other crew members between ships to bring them back to battle readiness. Damage assessment is made again and the ships that have the most damage are given time for what repairs that can be made to be made via their small repair drones.

The prowlers that were a part of the group begin to be used. They lay their hornet nuclear mines around the entrance of the rift at random vectors. The mines are cooled to absolute zero so thermal detections cannot be used. Once they finish laying the minefield they move back into positions to watch and record the battlefield.

Drakador_Chaos
Since the beast was not maneuvering it would make the move that Stantine was planning more viable. He ordered the AI to synchronize all the spinal lances and railguns to fire at a single point in the beast to penetrate deeply through the entire thing and lastly hitting the eye of doom in the front. The AI positioned the ships to allow it. The bow gates opened up. The lances fired one after another into the exact spot as armour penetrating shells rained into the same spot. As the lances had fired he ordered the fleet to reverse the thrust and slow down.

KrankysFirebrand48
After a short break regarding the signal, the screen comes back to life.
//Transmission: GSR Code//
"It obviously is not. Ve have returned and are growing stronger in numbers zhan ever before. Over zhe last year ve have built up both in economy as well as military. Now zhe question remains to be asked: Vhat side are you on, and is zhere any interest in renewing old bonds?"
//Transmission End, awaiting answer//

boombox
The minister of foreign relations spoke, "If we are to re-establish our bonds we must make an official government investigation of your nation. You must understand that there are many conditions, some of which may have changed, to being a military partner to our nation. Certain grudges must also not be held. I believe our positions have been switched from the last time we initiated our alliance, for now we are the ones who do not want to be dragged into your wars, considering the GSR was wall know for its militaristic nature and bonds we have with some former nations that contributed against us in the war of the third coalition."

KrankysFirebrand48
There was no response for a while, then a short transmission arrived back:
//Transmission: GSR Code//
"Ve vill under no circumstance allow your nation to "investigate" us, vhatever zhis may entail. Ve are who ve are and you know exactly who ve are. A peace offer is a peace offer, and you refused it."
//Transmission End//
With this the German ships swiftly turned and FTL'd out of sector, maybe never to be seen again..

boombox
The minister of foreign relations looked at the others in the room. "how undiplomatic." he uttered, "Are you certain these were members of the actual German Space Regime? I refuse to believes these were nothing but trolls to waste our time. They didn't even try to negotiate!"
One of the men started sweating.
"Sir, all identifications showed that it was them."
"Well, did you get a gene confirmation? I thought not! Everyone in this room is dismissed."
.

.
Dumb
They get contact with one of the communications station around the defensive fleet centered around the cruiser HMS Lancaster.

KrankysFirebrand48
"eyy....wait, this is on?"
The screen shows Dasha in a rather...untidy suit, sitting unpolitely on a beany which seems to be composed of metal parts. The graphical transmission is immediately cut off, and promptly restored back to normal, showing a clean and mechanical interior of what seems to be the shuttle.
"Ahem, hello there, this is Dasha from the Forge of Babel, hereby seeking a private meeting with...someone who can at least be in charge of diplomatics."

Dumb
In return she hears a scrambled voice. "Who are you and what do you want? The ministry of foreign relations is very busy and strangers cannot request meetings, especially from outside our borders."

KrankysFirebrand48
"tsk civilian grade stuff don't always work eh?....."
A series of aggressive patting later, Dasha shouts through the comms with relatively loud voice.
"This Is Dasha, Owner of the Forge of Babel, Seeking official first encounter procedure!"

Dumb
"First contact? Well then, Ma'am you will have to choose between the digital interaction or the in-person procedures. Note that the latter option is a lengthy process where your privacy, body and biology will be completely violated and your ship will be put under surveillance if you are a private person. Should you be a representative of a country or corporation, you must have negotiated and made an agreement outside our territory."

KrankysFirebrand48
"huh...Does the referral from the Prime Minister of the United Earth Government helps shorten the wait? or else I will simply go to the Embassy and knock over there."

Dumb
"Do you have proof of said referral?"

KrankysFirebrand48
"...are you in a position high enough to receive a direct link with the PM? I can try to route one but I fear it may cause you some unfortunate events."