Quoted By:
>20
“Direct impact. Neither point defense nor last-minute maneuvering offered the Mizarian supercapital leeway.
The thermonuclear warhead detonated less than a hundred meters from bare hull - far too close for armor to bear any relevance. Thermal radiation flashed protective cladding into vapor, consuming two kilometers of reinforced superstructure in an instant. Purified water – from both reaction-mass tanks and habitation compartments – dissociated into base elements to form a stark-orange fireball that took nearly a minute to fully dissipate.
When the RAIN’s sensors recalibrated, not even an afterimage of the alien defender remained. Quick, brutal and moderately anticlimactic – hallmarks of a well-executed engagement.
As our vessel cut velocity, we noticed that the station had also suffered – albeit to a lesser extent. A mixture of thermal stress and hypervelocity shrapnel had slagged sections of the heat shield, compromising the primary structure responsible for protecting the power converters and assembly bays from the blazing heat below. At the same time, the EMP from the thermonuclear detonation had burned through the station’s systems, leaving control channels and comm buffers open for scant milliseconds as security rebooted.
Those seconds were imperceptible to me. But my companion was less forgiving. MERRYGATE exploited the breach immediately by broadcasting a pre-cached attack. A poisoned transmission allowed her to gain a small foothold in the station’s central control system – an intrusion path that would eventually lead her to the subroutines responsible for maintaining and steering the propulsion beam.
On the one hand, the potential of her plan was not lost to me. Any device powerful enough to propel an impactor to sub-relativistic speeds was already a potent weapon. Based on our calculations, the propulsion-beam could easily match – or even exceed – the energy output we extracted from the hijacked mirror array. Sufficient, most likely, to break open the dense chain of defensive stations guarding the Mizarian homeworld.
But it would also take time. Hours, perhaps even days, where we would gamble on the star-bright imprint of the impactor to steal a portion of its power for our own."
- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, SEPTEMBER 10th, PERSONAL JOURNAL
>ENGAGE. This risk is unacceptable. The RAIN will immediately render the station inoperable using her laser array. With days, solar wind will drag the remnants of the station into the depths of MIZAR-A’s photosphere - where it will incinerate.
>INTRUSION. The reward warrants the risk. The RAIN will enter a temporary holding pattern around the station to give MERRYGATE sufficient time to compromise the central control system. While there is a significant chance that she can complete this task rapidly, the station will continue to boost the impactor with its propulsion beam until she is successful. [Roll required if picked]
