Chapter 354: Commodore Halvek Ruun 4

Ruun’s soldiers moved quickly.

They cleared the first hall, found no resistance, and continued through the route Eirenne had left open.

Their commanders probably believed the defenders had withdrawn toward the lower levels.

The first group reached the narrow passage.

Astra allowed nearly fifty troops to enter before she sealed the door behind them.

The lights went out.

Compact soldiers fired into the darkness, but the passage walls were reinforced and offered no useful targets.

A moment later, Astra’s defense teams attacked from both ends.

The fight was short.

The trapped Compact group surrendered after losing several soldiers and finding both exits sealed.

The troops behind them tried another corridor.

That one led into an empty maintenance hall where Eirenne shut down the gravity and released fire-suppression foam into the room.

Soldiers, weapons, and equipment drifted apart while sanctuary defenders fired from protected positions along the ceiling.

Ruun’s boarding plan had depended on taking the launch halls quickly and opening a path for larger forces.

Instead, his troops became trapped in separate parts of the upper sanctuary.

"They cannot reach the lower levels," Eirenne said.

"Can they return to their transports?" Aurelian asked.

"Some. The western hall remains open."

"Leave it open."

Ruun could still recover his soldiers if he chose to withdraw.

Aurelian did not want desperate troops scattering through the sanctuary because they believed escape was impossible.

Outside, the battle was becoming worse for the Compact.

Solenne’s returning group finally reached weapon range.

Her light cruiser fired first, striking the rear of Ruun’s central formation while the destroyers spread out and attacked the assault carriers from several directions.

The carriers were protected by heavy cruisers, but most of those cruisers were facing the sanctuary.

Turning to meet Solenne exposed them to the smaller batteries along the mountain.

Ruun now had to choose between continuing the bombardment or protecting his carriers.

He tried to do both.

The central formation split.

Half the cruisers turned toward Solenne, while the others remained focused on Sanctuary Ardent.

The assault carriers began pulling back, but their boarding craft were still inside the shield and could not return quickly.

Rhoswen and the cutters attacked the left wing again.

This time they did not enter close range. They fired from behind the mining debris and forced the Compact ships to turn their shields away from the sanctuary.

The smaller mountain batteries used that opening.

Several concentrated on one cruiser whose shields had already been damaged. The ship lost its engines and drifted toward the ore station, while two destroyers moved to pull it clear.

Ruun’s left wing slowed again.

The Compact commander opened a new transmission.

His face appeared on the main display, and the confidence he had shown earlier was gone.

"You have trapped my soldiers inside the sanctuary."

"They entered after you ordered them to board," Aurelian replied.

"Release them."

"Order them to surrender."

Ruun’s expression tightened.

"You are not in a position to make demands."

Aurelian looked at the tactical display.

Ruun still had more ships than the sanctuary defenders, but his formation had broken into several separate fights.

His right wing was out of position, his left wing could not approach the mountain, and Solenne’s returning ships were threatening the assault carriers.

The sanctuary shields were weak, but they were still holding.

"I am holding the sanctuary," Aurelian said. "Your boarding troops are surrounded, and your carriers are withdrawing. I am in a better position than you expected."

Ruun ended the transmission.

A few seconds later, every Compact ship increased its fire.

The central force launched a full attack against the mountain, using missiles, kinetic weapons, and beams at the same time.

The sanctuary shield failed across three sections.

Several strikes hit the upper armor.

The command center shook hard enough to throw loose equipment from one wall, while warning lights appeared across Eirenne’s display.

"Northwestern power line damaged. Two secondary batteries offline. Shield output has fallen below twenty-two percent."

Aurelian held the edge of the tactical table as another impact passed through the mountain.

Ruun was trying to break the sanctuary before Solenne’s larger force returned.

"He is committing everything," Eirenne said.

"How long until Solenne arrives?"

"The main formation is thirty-four minutes away."

That was too long.

The smaller returning group could harass Ruun, but it could not stop the bombardment by itself.

Aurelian looked at the damaged main batteries.

Three had lost cooling control, and two were close to reactor failure. One remained usable, though Eirenne had warned that firing it could destroy the weapon.

"Can the last main battery target Ruun’s flagship?" he asked.

Eirenne marked the enemy command ship in the center of the formation.

"It can, but the flagship is protected by four heavy cruisers. The shot may not reach it."

"Can you narrow the weapon output?"

"Yes. That will increase penetration but reduce the width of the attack."

"Do it."

Eirenne hesitated.

"The battery will almost certainly be lost."

"We only need it once."

The remaining main battery adjusted beneath the mountain.

Ruun’s ships detected the power build-up and moved cruisers in front of the flagship. He expected another wide strike against the central group.

Instead, Eirenne focused the entire weapon into a narrow line.

"Ready," she said.

Aurelian waited until Solenne’s destroyers launched another attack against the carriers.

The escorting cruisers turned to meet them.

For a few seconds, one side of Ruun’s flagship was exposed.

"Fire."

The mountain shook again.

A thin beam left Sanctuary Ardent and passed through the first heavy cruiser before its shields could spread the force. The cruiser broke open along its center.

The beam continued into the second ship, damaging its forward armor, then struck Ruun’s flagship near the command section.

The flagship’s shields failed.

Its upper hull vanished inside the light.

The beam ended before the ship was completely destroyed, but the flagship lost power and began drifting away from the formation.

At the same time, the sanctuary battery shut down.

Eirenne looked toward Aurelian.

"The firing chamber is damaged beyond immediate repair."

"What about Ruun?"

"His flagship is still intact, but it has lost command transmission."

Compact communications became confused almost at once.

Some ships continued firing.

Others moved toward the disabled flagship.

The assault carriers stopped withdrawing because they had not received new orders, while the left and right wings tried to contact different commanders.

Ruun’s fleet had not been destroyed.

It had lost control.

Aurelian opened a wide channel to every Compact ship.

"Your flagship is disabled, your boarding troops are trapped, and Solenne’s main fleet is returning. Withdraw now, and your ships will be allowed to leave. Continue the attack, and you will be surrounded before your command structure recovers."

For several seconds, nobody answered.

Then one assault carrier turned away from Sanctuary Ardent.

A second followed.

The heavy cruiser nearest Ruun’s flagship moved alongside it and began preparing a tow line, while ships from the central formation formed a rough defensive screen around them.

The right wing received orders from a surviving captain and started pulling back from the system.

The left wing resisted for another minute before retreating from the mining debris.

Rhoswen followed at a distance but did not attack.

Aurelian noticed.

"Do not pursue," he said.

"I know."

"You were already following."

"I was making sure they understood where the exit was."

The boarding troops inside the sanctuary were left behind.

Some tried to reach their transports, but most found the western launch hall blocked by their own damaged craft. Astra gave them one chance to surrender.

After learning that Ruun’s fleet was withdrawing, their resistance ended quickly.

Solenne’s returning group remained near the sanctuary as the Compact formation gathered around the damaged flagship.

Ruun’s fleet had lost several ships and suffered damage across all three groups, but most of it remained capable of leaving.

Aurelian allowed them to go.

Stopping the withdrawal would require pushing the sanctuary’s weakened defenses beyond their limits, and Solenne’s small group could not safely attack without support.

The Compact ships moved toward the jump boundary.

They carried Ruun’s damaged flagship with them.

By the time Solenne’s main fleet returned, only the last Compact destroyers remained in the system.

Solenne did not chase them.

Her ships formed around Sanctuary Ardent instead.

A direct channel opened.

"You fired the main batteries again," she said.

"One battery."

"How many are left?"

"None that can fire at full strength."

There was a pause.

"I leave for less than two hours."

"The transports survived."

"So did you."

"Yes."

Solenne looked as though she wanted to say more, but she let the matter go.

Aurelian turned toward Eirenne.

"Final losses."

"Three sanctuary cutters damaged, one seriously. Two Human destroyers disabled. The western launch area will need major repair, and all main batteries are now offline. Compact losses include seven destroyed ships, eleven disabled or abandoned vessels, and more than four hundred boarding troops captured."

"And Ruun?"

"Alive, as far as we can tell."

That meant he would return to Saevor Drann with another failed report.

Taran had lost control of the sanctuary.

Ruun had failed to take it back.

The Compact now knew that Sanctuary Ardent could resist a sudden attack, but Aurelian also knew the truth. The sanctuary had survived by using old mining charges, damaged weapons, careful timing, and the enemy’s impatience.

Those advantages would not work forever.

Rhoswen’s cutter returned through the damaged western approach.

Its shield was gone, one side was burned, and part of the engine housing had been torn open.

Her voice reached the command center.

"The strongest cutter may no longer be the strongest."

"Can it dock?" Aurelian asked.

"Probably."

"That is not reassuring."

"It will dock."

Astra returned from the upper halls while Rhoswen guided the cutter toward the remaining launch passage.

"The boarding troops are secured," Astra said. "A few are injured, but Vaela has already sent medical teams."

Aurelian nodded.

"Any losses among the defenders?"

"Seven wounded. None dead."

That was better than he had expected.

Eirenne updated the system display.

The Arcturus support convoy was still hours away, but Solenne’s fleet now guarded the sanctuary again.

The surviving civilian transports had reached their transfer points, and the medical patients remained safe inside the lower halls.

The first construction frames from the Continuity Vault were waiting near the cargo lifts.

Work had stopped during the battle.

It would begin again now.

Aurelian looked over the damaged sanctuary, the captured ships, and the exhausted fleet surrounding the mountain.

Ruun had arrived at the weakest moment and still failed.

The next enemy would not make the same mistakes.

"Resume repairs," Aurelian ordered. "Move the prisoners away from the damaged halls, and prepare the captured Compact ships for inspection."

Eirenne acknowledged the orders.

Solenne’s fleet settled into a defensive formation while repair craft moved toward the damaged launch area.

Inside the mountain, the lights remained on.

Sanctuary Ardent had lost its strongest weapons, but its people were alive, its vault remained secure, and the Compact had been forced from the system for the second time.

Aurelian did not mistake that for safety.

For now, it was enough.