Chapter 352: Commodore Halvek Ruun 2

She nodded.

"What about you?"

"I’ll remain here."

Rhoswen looked toward the launch display.

"I assume I’m not staying with the prisoners this time."

"No. Take one of the cutters."

Her eyes brightened.

"Which one?"

"The strongest."

"I knew your gratitude would improve."

Aurelian ignored the comment.

The warp disturbance reached its final stage.

Space beyond the debris belt twisted, then opened as the first Compact ships appeared.

They arrived with shields already active.

Heavy cruisers came through first, followed by destroyers, carriers, and long assault vessels built to carry boarding forces. Their hulls were painted a dark grey, with pale markings running along the sides.

More ships followed behind them.

Eirenne finished the count.

"Ninety-three combat vessels. Eleven support ships. Six assault carriers."

It was not a force large enough to fight Solenne’s full fleet.

It was more than enough to overwhelm the damaged ships defending the sanctuary.

Halvek Ruun did not waste time forming a wide line.

His ships arrived in three dense groups, all moving toward Sanctuary Ardent before their warp drives had fully cooled.

A transmission reached the command center.

A broad man with close-cut hair appeared on the display. His uniform carried more decorations than Yarric’s, though several had been arranged so badly that they sat at different heights.

"Human commander," Ruun said, "you are holding Compact military territory and Compact personnel. Shut down the sanctuary weapons, release all prisoners, and surrender your ships. If you obey now, the civilians inside the mountain will not be harmed."

Aurelian listened without interrupting.

When Ruun finished, Aurelian answered.

"This sanctuary was never Compact territory. Your forces occupied it, imprisoned its population, and tried to destroy it when they lost control."

Ruun’s face hardened.

"I did not come to debate ownership."

"Neither did I."

Aurelian ended the transmission.

The Compact fleet continued forward.

Eirenne tracked their shields and weapon systems.

"They are preparing a concentrated strike against the mountain entrance."

"They want to disable the launch areas before boarding," Astra said.

Aurelian saw another movement on the display.

Two groups of heavy cruisers were separating from the main formation and moving toward opposite sides of the sanctuary.

Ruun was not sending them to fire from a distance.

He wanted them close enough to enter the weak areas outside the main battery arcs.

Yarric had warned that Ruun preferred direct attacks, but this was not careless.

The central group would force the sanctuary to fire forward while the two wings moved around the mountain.

Once they reached the sides, the smaller batteries would not stop them quickly enough.

"They know where Taran found gaps in the defenses," Eirenne said.

"He sent them the records before they arrived," Aurelian replied.

The enemy entered long-range weapon distance.

Compact kinetic rounds came first.

They crossed the system in a wide spread, striking the sanctuary shields and the damaged ships waiting beneath them.

The mountain’s defensive field flashed from dozens of impacts.

A Human destroyer lost part of its weakened shield, while one of the damaged cruisers moved behind the sanctuary before the next volley arrived.

Ruun’s fleet fired again.

This time, missiles followed the kinetic rounds.

Aurelian waited.

The two enemy wings continued moving outward, trying to reach the sanctuary’s sides before its main batteries opened fire.

Ruun believed Aurelian would shoot at the central group first.

That was what Taran’s battle records would suggest.

"Eirenne," Aurelian said, "ignore the center."

She understood immediately.

The main sanctuary batteries changed position beneath the mountain.

Their weapon channels turned toward the right-side Compact group, where more than twenty cruisers were still moving into their attack route.

Ruun detected the change too late.

"Fire."

The sanctuary shook.

Every working main battery released its stored power in one heavy volley.

The attack crossed the distance almost instantly.

The leading Compact cruisers had strong shields, but they had not expected every main weapon to target the same part of the formation.

Shields collapsed across the front of the group, and the ships behind them had no time to change course.

The first cruiser broke apart near its center.

A second lost its engines and drifted into the path of the vessel behind it. Two destroyers disappeared inside the light of the attack, while several other ships turned away with damaged shields.

The whole right wing slowed.

Warning symbols spread across Eirenne’s display.

"Three main batteries have lost cooling control," she said. "Two others cannot fire again without serious reactor risk."

Aurelian had expected that.

The sanctuary had spent its strongest attack.

Ruun still had most of his fleet.

The Compact commander recovered quickly. He ordered the damaged right wing to remain outside the smaller weapon range while the left wing increased speed.

At the same time, his central group opened fire on the sanctuary again.

The shields above the mountain weakened under the combined attack.

Ruun’s assault carriers moved forward behind the cruisers, their launch bays beginning to open.

Astra watched the boarding craft appear.

"They are committing."

"Yes," Aurelian said.

Rhoswen’s cutter remained hidden inside the debris field with the other three vessels.

Solenne’s first returning group was still sixteen minutes away.

The sanctuary shields would not hold at their present strength for that long.

Aurelian looked at the enemy carriers as they prepared to release their boarding forces.

"Eirenne, let the left wing come closer."

"How close?"

"Close enough that it cannot turn away."

Astra understood what he intended.

"The cutters will not be enough to stop that many cruisers."

"They don’t need to stop them."

Ruun’s left wing entered the narrow space between Sanctuary Ardent and the remains of an old ore-processing station.

The route gave them cover from some of the sanctuary’s weapons, just as Taran’s records had shown.

It also placed the entire group beside thousands of tons of damaged mining machinery that Eirenne now controlled.

Aurelian watched the distance fall.

The enemy ships moved closer.

Their forward weapons turned toward the mountain.

Their shields faced the sanctuary.

Their sides remained exposed to the debris field.

"Now," Aurelian said.

Four sanctuary cutters left cover at the same time.

Rhoswen’s vessel led them out from behind the broken station, moving directly toward the side of Ruun’s advancing formation.

The cutters opened fire on shield emitters and engines while Eirenne activated every surviving mining charge along the route.

The space beside Sanctuary Ardent filled with explosions.

Compact cruisers turned toward the new threat, but their dense formation gave them little room.

Aurelian watched the left wing begin to break apart just as Solenne’s returning destroyers appeared on the far edge of the system.

The battle had only begun, but Ruun’s easy victory had already disappeared.