[Starhawk]

2419.5 Battle and Growth:
“How many ships did you say Commander?” Captain Fowler jumped out of her bed and wiped the sleep from her eyes as she waited for the Officer of the Watch to confirm his message.
“21 Ma’am, various classes of Phong Light Cruiser, they are headed towards us at maximum speed.” Commander Hoggins was surprisingly relaxed about the situation, but then again the IRN had proven that they completely outclass the Phong Federal Navy in every battle since 2407 so there was not much to be that tense about.

Ross had ordered only the Hawkwing and Lenin to escort his flagship against the enemy fleet, with their new weapons and upgrades Ross was convinced that 21 enemy ships would be no problem for his small squadron.
The massive dreadnought kept her speed down so that her two heavy cruiser consorts could keep up during the 18 hour trip to intercept the enemy fleet, in the meantime Ross allowed his crew to eat breakfast, get some sleep and have some off time as he wanted them to be in top trim when the battle actually began.

“Admiral, Captain Yu is hailing.” The com officer tabbed a control that sent the image of Captain Yu directly to Ross’ command chair and engaged privacy mode throughout the rest of the bridge.
“Admiral, I would like to request you allow Lenin to take the lead in the opening line if you wouldn’t mind sir?” Yu’s tone was very formal and rigid, it rather surprised Ross after hearing her laughing at a dirty joke in the officer’s mess aboard his ship only a few days before, then again at that time it surprised him and all the other officers present that the “prim and proper Miss Yu” would laugh a at joke about Phong reproduction, Ross shook his head as he thought about the fact that she was still so capable of surprising him.
“Oh, why do you want to lead the charge Captain?” Ross asked plainly
“Admiral, with all respect your flagship is hardly the appropriate choice to lead the line of battle straight into an enemy line, until we can come line-to-line with them I recommend you allow a smaller ship lead the advance.” Her reasoning was logical but Ross did not like the thought of risking her ship to protect his, no matter how well the odds favored his squadron, he was tempted to order Hawkwing to take up the lead but forced that thought out of his mind, if he did something like that and Hawkwing were damaged or destroyed then he would never forgive himself for sacrificing one good officer to protect another just because he had feelings for her.
“Captain Yu…” Ross swallowed hard and steeled his resolve “Permission granted, you may take your ship to the lead but when we form the line-to-line engagement I want you ship in it’s proper position understood?”
“Aye Admiral understood, thank you sir.” Yu saluted and cut the circuit.
Ross steepled his fingers under his chin and watched the tactical display show the heavy cruiser pulling forward.

20 minutes later the fleet was in engagement range, the opening salvo was fired by Lenin her powerful cannons easily destroyed two enemy warships as she turned about to begin forming the -line of battle-, Shadowclaw was the second warship to fire, her guns vaporized three enemy ships, she took up formation just “behind” the Lenin in the line and was followed up by Hawkwing who had managed two kills.

“Sir Line of battle formed.”
“Enemy fleet closing fast, all gunnery crews report ready for broadside”
“Enemy entering their combat envelope in three minutes I repeat three minutes, that leaves us three more broadsides.”
Voices echoed across the bridge of the massive as the crew quickly readied themselves for the real battle, Ross watched the main screen light up in a dazzling array of colors as all three Icaran warships fired their broadsides almost simultaneously into the enemy fleet, 10 ships vanished in an eye blink.
Four enemy ships remained yet they closed far faster then first estimated, all three fired directly at Lenin breaching her shields, the cannon shells that made it through the shields fell harmlessly against the Icaran warship’s ablative armor and both Ross and Yu thanked God for that particular invention.

Shadowclaw swept down upon the four offenders as if the ship it’s self were filled with wroth, her guns protruding from her like teeth ready to shred meat from bones, and shred they did as the massive dreadnought swept through the four ship formation, guns blazing as their beams were switched to “slicing mode”, the powerful green beams swept across the four enemy ships tearing them to pieces with ease, it was like a wolf among sheep and the dreadnought rampaged until all four enemy ships were nothing but debris clouds and particulate matter.

The Icaran fleet had emerged victorious, only two crew were killed aboard Lenin but in their triumph Ross felt only doubt, doubt about his feelings towards Yu Lin and how they would effect his future as the commander of a Royal Navy fleet.

Meanwhile the Icaran Praetor, Leonidas speaks to the public:
“My fellow Icarans, today is a grand day in our history, a day we achieve what has been for centuries thought impossible, the ability to terraform entire worlds!
On this day our construction companies all across the empire have begun building the first series of atmospheric converters, these converters allow us to turn any atmosphere on any world into one that our people can breath, this development will allow our once domed, and population controlled colonies to expand over the surface of an entire planet.

Now this project will not take place overnight, in fact the first series alone will take approximately three years to be fully realized, yet these first slow steps are not without purpose our scientists are still unsure of how the planet’s will react when their atmospheres are totally changed, and so the “first series” worlds are all worlds who’s populations have volunteered- or at least 75% have- to act as the test beds for this new technology.

When those tests are finished we will begin full fledged terraforming projects all across the Empire, this project may take years or even decades but when it is finished our people will thrive as never before, and I am honored to lead such a brave and advanced people to their future…” Leonidas’ picture faded as the Icaran flag waved on screen and a list of “first series” worlds showed on the screen of every Icaran household within the empire.