((OOC Note: This post is cross-posted from here.))

Outgoing encoded message:
FROM: The Duke of Sorvind, Rigelian Colony on Lacerta
TO: Commisar HX-909-A, Iron Dragons Platform One
~Hex, I am sending greetings on behalf of the Marchioness von Triberg. You may know her as Lady Azjah Danaan in RhyDin. She has requested that I seek your services for the defense of Lacerta. Please review the attached dossier on the Cepheans and advise your status.~
~At your service, Alexandre, Duke of Sorvind.~

Hex looked over the screen and the communication from the Duke, quickly reviewing the attached data and considering. So this was the force the Marchioness had spoken of? Indulging in what amounted to a mental shrug, the machine used the comms relay to send a reply, with an attached carrier invitation for live transmission.
"Duke Alexandre, the Iron Dragons are currently available for active service. If you are able, please respond with real-time communications so we may discuss the particulars."

Alexandre was just about to leave when the system indicated the incoming message, and the invitation, he opened the channel. "I was not expecting you to be immediately available. Greetings to you from the Marchioness."

"Greetings Your Grace. As you should know, I am Commisar Hex, of the Iron Dragons. My forces have recently completed a contract campaign, so I was aboard our station when your message arrived. I thought it prudent to respond quickly." Hex's hands folded on the desk it sat behind, humanoid features calm and expressionless, "Now, how may the Iron Dragons be of service to Lacerta?"

"Commisar, your expeditious reply may prove truly life saving. As you can see from the file, the Cepheans have effectively surrounded the colonial world of Lacerta. We are uncertain when they plan their invasion and landing, but the build up has been ongoing for 3 weeks now. The Marchioness does not have equivalent support to fend off this assembly. She has requested that I seek your support to defend her marches."

Hex nodded to the man on the other side of the screen, "I have reviewed the data you sent, and while formiddable, I am confident that our naval forces can breach the blockade."
Now Hex paused for a moment, "I must however bring up a related matter. I will need to know in advance the specifics of our employment. What is our stated mission to be?"

"The Marchioness can field 10 fighters and 4 capital ships with 3 destroyer class ships. Our contract with your contingent would be the breaking of the blockade by any means. You would be authorized to harass, drive off, or eradicate the Cephean and Cih forces in orbit, or on the ground. I am the commanding officer for Lacerta. I would expect coordination of efforts to minimize losses for both the Marchioness' contingent as well as your own. The final decision however, in the event of descrepant actions would have to come from the Marchioness. Your fees are acceptable to Her Grace. Does that adequately provide you an answer?"

"In part, yes. Our primary objective is the removal of the Cephean blockade. Are we going to be tasked with eliminating any ground forces?"

"According to the intelligence obtained by Her Grace, there are troops landed on Lacerta. Currently we are trying to locate where they may be hiding. For time contraints, we have identified 10 likely hiding places, but Her Grace could not provide information on the size of the landing party, nor the location. Most curiously, she obtained her information from a Cih."

Hex shook it's head, while the information was interesting in itself, it hadn't quite answered the question. "My apologies Your Grace. I will need to know in advance if our contract is to include the engagement and elimination of any ground forces, or are we simply to eliminate the blockade?"

Alexandre considered. "Commisar, plan for a ground assault by the Cepheans, and that means you should consider that part of the contract. Lacerta is a very low technology world. They could not defeat the Cephean/Cih invaders. Your contract is the eradication or removal of the invaders."

Now at last Hex nodded, "Understood. The contract details are then this: We are to use whatever forces necessary to remove all enemy presence from the colony world. Contract duration is unknown, and will extend until all objectives have been reached." Canting it's head slightly, "Is this accurate?"

Alexandre gave him a wry smile. "Your contract is with Her Grace, and she allows great latitude. She informed me that you had the experience to deal with our invaders. If Her Grace trusts you, I will support you as needed. We will seek the location of the ground forces already here. Yes, duration is unknown based on how long it takes us to remove the Cepheans. Yes, you may use whatever means neccessary to remove all of the invaders."

Hex nodded again at the confirmation. "My apologies for repeating myself. I use several factors when determining our fees, the first is specific objectives, the second is contract duration, and the final is expected enemy forces. You had already provided data on the third. Now that I have all the required information, I can reach a price, one moment." For show, the machine made the motions of typing into a console, but in reality it already had the figures. "Your Grace, our fee for this contract will be three million credits. Is this acceptable?"

Alexandre nodded. "I am authorized to meet your fee structure. I presume that you require some of these credits in advance?"

"Yes. Our standard is ten percent in advance."

"Where do you desire the first installment?"

Typing out another command into it's console, "I am transmitting routing instructions now. You may deposit the payment at your leisure. Do you wish to co-ordinate our initial strike?"

When the information arrived, Alexandre immediately transferred 15% as good faith before looking once again at Hex's image. "The initial strike will be determined by your availability. How soon can you be in Lacertian space?"

Hex turned to another screen, out of the camera's field of view. Frowning slightly as it pulled up the navigation data Azjah had already given it. Looking back to the screen, Hex shook it's head, "I'm afraid there are no readily direct routes to your realm of space. It will take us approximately two days to reach your system."

"I will advise the Marchioness' forces to expect you. Two days hence. We will continue our efforts to locate this ground force she believes is here."

Hex nodded and was alread issuing orders electronicly. Elsewhere on the ID orbital platform, soldiers were already scrambling to prepare supplies and ships for launch. "Your Grace. Good luck."

The Duke nodded in response, "We look forward to your arrival."

Hex made a half-bow from it's seat, then closed the connection. There were a lot of preparations to be done, and not much time.

The area of space around the Iron Dragon's orbital platform was alight with recent activity. The platform, previously an abandoned cargo waystation, had been converted by it's current occupants into a heavily defended base of operations and training for the mercenaries called Iron Dragons. Many modifications had been made to the station since ID moved in, including moving the command centers deep into the core, where they could be protected by the bulk of the station itself.
Hex stood in it's humanoid frame looking over a series of reports on the mobalization of ID's ground and space forces. The fleet had been assembled quickly enough. Transferring over thirty thousand troops, and all associated vehicles, supplies, and landing craft from an orbiting station onto a mobile fleet was no small task. Already it had taken them half a day to load the bulk of the troops and vehicles onto the fleet transports. The delays were due mainly to the fact that the station had only four docking berths large enough for the transport/carrier ships ID was using. Hex was already working in the back portions of it's mechanical mind, designing alterations and additions to the Iron Dragons station which would allow them to reduce future mobilization times. Hopefully the proceeds from this latest campaign would cover the extra construction costs.

One of the Elites, Hex's personal guard and highly trained commando units, approached and saluted by striking his fist to chest, over the heart, "Sir! The final transport has nearly completed loading. Your shuttle is waiting in the landing bay."

Hex nodded and turned from the screen listing reports and returned the salute, "Very well Jennings. Have all fleet Captains been given their rendezvous orders?"

"Yes Commisar. All ships have recieved navigational data. We will rendezvous twenty light minutes from Lacerta orbit. Unless the enemy ships have FTL sensor equipment, and know where to look for us, they shouldn't notice us until we make final jump into orbit." Jennings smiled in pride and anticipation. He'd worked hard to finally attain the coveted rank of Elite. Out of all the forces of ID, only fourty were ever named Elite by their mechanical Commisar. Out of over thirty thousand, Jennings was judged by the Marduk to be the smartest, resourceful, and adaptable soldiers. Jennings had only seen two campaigns with Iron Dragons, since Arcturus Phi IV, but already he'd made more money and seen more action in that short time than his fifteen years with the Genoshen System Military.

Hex drew the man's attention back to the present as it nodded and pulled a data crystal from the terminal before standing and walking to the lifts, "I share your anticipation Jennings, however I would prefer to assume nothing until I have facts. When we enter the Lacerta system, all ships are to immediately go to full combat readiness. If we have any indication that the enemy forces have detected us within five minutes, we will execute emergency jumps to far orbit. If they do not detect us, we will co-ordinate our efforts with the Lacertan forces."

The ride up to the landing bays was uneventful and silent. Hex was still going over potential battle plans, there were some unknowns in the information the Marchioness and Duke had provided on the Cephean and Cih forces, however those holes could be filled in the first few minutes of combat. As the lift stopped and they stepped out, Hex's personal shuttle was waiting. The Invictus resembled for all the world an oversized beetle of some kind. Hex paused and turned to Jennings, "I have a brief stop to make on Rhydin, I will join you aboard the flagship."
Jennings saluted without a word and strode off to another shuttle waiting to join the fleet. Hex boarded the Invictus, and quickly brought the ship to life. Piloting the craft from the bay, the Marduk silently sent the control signals to station Traffic Control, then swung out and down towards the world of Rhydin below. Hex needed to stop and leave a message with the Lupinossi Den that the bulk of Iron Dragons forces and Hex itself would be out of touch, but that Hex had given orders for two hundred of the soldiers to remain, under the command of Fleet and Ammy.

Behind the Invictus the last transports undocked from the station and maneuvered away to join the waiting fleet. There to await Hex's return before they set out through the various dimensional pathways to reach Lacerta...

((OOC Note: Adapted from live RP))

Hex brought the Invictus in to land in the docking bay aboard the fleet's flagship, the cruiser Defiance. Cycling down the shuttle's power systems, Hex finally turned in the chair and stood. "Viola, when we reach the bridge, send the signal to the rest of the fleet to break orbit and maneuver to the first dimensional gate."

"Consider it done." That perepetual scowl was fixed on her face, when she turned to him. "Hey boss? Ever get the feeling we were forgetting something?"

The question caught the machine's attention, causing it to pause and turn towards the woman. Viola was not known for trivial questions, one reason Hex trusted her input. "No. I do not actually feel or notice it when I have genuinely forgotten. Why do you ask?"

"I was looking over the troup deployments for the fleet.. Why the hell don't we have a Sawbones unit listed in more than ninety percent of the detachments?"

A quick blink, then the blue-tinted head nodded. "I see. Yes, that is a considerable shortcoming in our forces, however one that was so far unavoidable. We have not had opportunity to recruit medically trained personell sufficient to our needs." Turning to resume the path off the shuttle and out into the bay, still talking as it walked. "I have enacted a temporary measure however."

"Not the bloody hello kitty bandages again I hope? You know that almost caused a riot when they broke them out at the training camp." Deadpan, she might actually be serious about that.

"A poor attempt at humor by one medic. I'm told he was originally from Earth, and thought the soldiers might appreciate the joke." Shaking it's head, "No. I have allocated funds to contract the services of medical model Marduk from my home Ark."
"As they are not officially members of Iron Dragons, they were not listed with the rosters."

"Is this gonna happen every time we ship out?"

Hex shook it's head again, "No. I intend to begin aggressive recruiting efforts from Rhydin and various connected realms to bolster both our combat numbers, as well as support personell. I have also been looking into expanding the facilities of the orbital platform."

A curt nod given, "Evans from the fifth detachment has kin that are in the medical field. Providing he survives the campaign I'd set him in charge to starting rectuitment there."

"Evans?" Hex accessed the roster in half a second, "Colonel Jake Evans?"

"Yes. Comes from a long line of medics." Vi had been doing background checks on all of the officers. Never knew where you'll find a hidden asset. "Currently his two brothers and a sister manage a country walk-in clinc founded by their parents. Even's funnels them seventy percent of his salary to keep it afloat each quarter."

That caused the machine to pause again. That kind of generosity was born typically only from the religiously devout, or desperation. "I will speak with Colonel Evans at first opportunity. Any new medics will be an asset, even if they need to be trained on our standards."

Viola nodded, "I'd buy out the bloody clinic if I were you, take the whole staff of one fifty and hire them on lock stock and bloody barrel."

A soft chuckle at that, "While I agree that would be the most efficient option, I cannot simply assume that they would all want such a change of their lives. We cannot simply have medical staff, we must have personell capable of surviving a possible battlefield. We need combat medics."

"Any who don't suit combat can stay on base boss. We need support personnel there as much as in the field."

"A good point. We will make the offer then." Stepping into the lift to the bridge, "Were there any other concerns?"

"Jhonson of the Ninth wants to know when we'll get a bloody chaplin. Personally I don't like religious mumbo jumbo, bunch of phillandering bastards clergy. But this wasn't the first request."

Frowning slightly, then sighing finally, an expression Hex had finally perfected. "I will consider their request. Will you contact the batallion level officers and find out how many troops share this desire?"
"Oh, and if they are willing to disclose the information, also ask to faiths represented."

Another curt nod, "I'll have the numbers by the end of the week."

"Keep in mind that in two days we will likely be in battle Draygon."

"All the more reason to wait till weeks end. The numbers will change with the numbers of casualties."

"Agreed. If possible, try to see that Colonel Evens is not among those casualties. Do not go out of the way to protect him, but keep an eye on his unit." Smiling slightly to his aide.

"Do I look like a fucking wet nurse?"

"Hardly. However, you *are* my right hand on the battlefield, as are all the Elites." Still that enigmatic smile as Hex turned to face Viola directly.

"Fine I'll nanny the colonel like a good little goat. But I reserve the right to knock him over the head and stuff him in an ammo can if he's being stupidly heroic." There was a distinct growl to her voice.

"That is acceptable. I do not want you to shelter him Draygon, I want you to watch out for threats *he* may not be aware of. Am I clear?"

"Mm," it came out as a noncommital grunt. "Don't I always?"

"Thus far Draygon, thus far." Again that smile, then they were at the bridge. The Executive Officer stood sharply and saluted, closed fist to heart, "Commisar on deck!" At once, the bridge crew followed suit.

"Vi the vigilant, thats me." Another growl and a salute, moving to relay his orders to navigation and communications.

As Hex moved to take the command station, it turned to follow Viola's progress. "Navigation, have we plotted course to the first gate?" Looking directly at Vi for the answer.

"Aye. Course set, ready to proceed on your orders Sir."

"Very well. Communications, open fleet wide channel."
The officer at the communication console keyed in the command, "Channel open Sir."
"Attention soldiers of the Iron Dragons. Today we begin our fourth campaign, and I know none of you will dissappoint yourselves, the Company, or myself. I may expect perfection and excellence, however that is only because I know that you are more than capable of delivering both of these."
"All ships, ahead full for the first gate!"

Vi took the navigation console herself, setting the ship into motion with a brisk efficiancy.

Outside, the dozens of ships began to follow the flagship on their two-day cross-realms trip to the Lacerta system.

"Commisar, we have reached the final waypoint." Erik Krievar, the Nav officer aboard the Defiance turned around in his seat to address the leader of Iron Dragons. The machine in question looked up from a status display and nodded, then turned to the Comms station, "Comms, what is the fleet's status?"

"All ships report status ready for Daedalus transit to Lacerta system." The Comms officer, Shaya Nevaroux, was an elven woman of middle age for that race, which meant she was over three hundred years old.

Hex nodded again, "Very well, give the signal for Daedalus transit. Navigation, what is our estimated transit time?" Sharon was already relaying the orders to the rest of the fleet while Erik ran the numbers through the system before responding, "Sir, we'll be in the corridor for fourty minutes, with a five minute margin plus or minus."

The forward viewscreen showed a view of space in front of the Iron Dragons Cruiser, this view was simulated from various sensors on the bow, as the bridge itself was deep within the roughly rectangular vessel, where the heavy armor and reinforcement could best protect the most vital part of the ship's nervous system. To either side of the cruiser, the smaller ships that formed the escorts for the Defiance's battle group moved forwards to match the cruiser's acceleration.

If there had been an observer watching the six battlegroups that formed up the ID fleet, they would note how the escorts closed in tightly around their cruisers. That same observer's attention might be drawn to the areas of space in front of each cruiser, where even now energies were being released and focused to open a hole in three-dimensional spacetime. To most, an explaination of these events would require either math that could drive some insane, or perhaps a simple analogy.

A tunnel was being bored through higher mathematics, into nine-dimensional space. This tunnel consisted of artificially stabilized 3-space, a term for the normal spacetime in three dimensions that most beings inhabit. As this tunnel wound it's way through the billions of 'folds' inherent in 9-space, it ended up taking shortcuts relative to 3-space. The Daedalus Transit Corridor, as this tunnel was known, followed a sort of 'arc' up through higher dimensions, then flowing back down to 3-space before exiting in a location some distance away.

This was the method by which the Iron Dragons fleet would cross the fourty parsecs between their emergence point in this universe, an out of the way but stable dimensional tear, and their destination, the Lacerta star system. While inside the corridor, the ships would need to use conventional sublight engines to propell themselves forward; it was the properties and nature of the corridor and the 9-space it transected that allowed the fleet to appear to violate the so-called light-speed barrier.

While each capital ship in the fleet was capable of forming it's own corridor, the exact time of transit tended to vary slightly depending on the length of time spent inside. The longer the journey, the more that variance. For this reason each battlegroup would form a single, larger corridor so that the exit variance would not put any one ship out of touch with it's mates.

An outside observer would watch and wonder as the glowing openings of the corridors swallowed ships one by one, finally closing behind the cruisers as they maintained the stable 3-space environments inside.

Hex was no outside observer, instead watching from a front-row seat as the other ships in the Defiance's battlegroup entered the corridor, the walls of the artificial construct already pulsating and seeming to flow in unnatural ways. It resembled the gullet of some cosmic worm, rippling as each ship in turn was swallowed and passed along it's length. This was where things became potentially dangerous, for if any ship contacted the walls of the corridor, that ship's matter would be torn apart as individual atoms were scattered across however many spatial dimensions they happened to be traversing at that time.

The machine in command of these forces was confident however; confident that the organics who it commanded would be competent enough to navigate the passing hazards that having multiple ships inside a single corridor presented. These were fine soldiers and fine comrades, Hex was not concerned in the slightest. No, what occupied Hex's thoughts was the upcoming battle with the Cephean and Cih space forces. While there was considerable intelligence on those very forces, Hex was concerned that the Cih may be able to send a warning message to the soldiers on the planet, before the ID fleet could destroy their flagship.

If the invasion troops planetside were warned of ID's arrival, they could either dig in well enough that only concerted orbital strikes could eliminate them, or else the brash Cephean forces may well decide to attack a civillian population center either as hostages, or worse, in retaliation. Still, while these possibles were a concern, there was only so much Hex could do in advance to prepare with the little available intelligence on the ground forces. Hex would need to contact Duke Alexandre again when the fleet arrived at the outer edge of the system. Hopefully in the past four hours, the Duke might have learned more about their expected enemies.

Most of the strike craft in the Iron Dragon's fleet were designated solely by a series of letters and numbers. The only exceptions to this rule were the wings of three containing Elites. Vi's wing was composed of light surgical strike craft. Two man units with enough power to outpace nearly any craft thrown at it, and enough firepower to put a lovely dent in a small moon. It was just the way Viola liked things, fast and deadly. Her wing was nicknamed Vigilance, because they were cross trained as scout vehicles.

" Command this is Vigilance Alpha, commencing pre-flight checks." She loathed the need for such a formality and it could be heard in her voice. This need for solitude was most likely why she had been passed over for command of one of the bigger ships. Repeatedly. Seemed that the only souls who could stand Vi's way of socializing were Hex and her gunner Maxwell Jaxion. And even Jax had his days when he couldn't stand the sight of her. He had a habit of getting her drunk and abandoning her in bars with a note taped to her back when that happened.

The man was good though. He never brought it into battle.

"Vigilance Alpha, you are clear for launch on the commissar's orders. Vigil Beta and Vigil Gamma have also been cleared. And before you growl at me, yes I have moved you to the top of the launch orders Elite Draygon" There was a crackle of static over the headset of her flight suit. They knew her temper well up in ops. The last time she had been delayed without due cause Vi had personally made sure the idiot responsible spent the next six weeks clearing out the sewage lines of every cruiser in the fleet.

"Good. Where was the Fifth placed?" The fifth's fliers were older and less reliable than Vi's newer birds. Vi was a bit concerned that this fact would get Evans killed before they had a chance to recruit his family.

"The fifth will be the third from last deployed Sir." Another crackle. Vi would have to make sure the coms were checked again after the battle.

Jax tapped Viola's shoulder from the gunner's seat behind her. " That a new flight suit Vi? Looks sexy as always. That red violet shade really suits you."

"Dammit Jax, you know I hate it when you hit on me before battle. You want me to pop that hatch and set you to drift in space this time?" There was a growl in her voice. There was always a growl somewhere when Vi was involved.

"Who would buy you drinks after we kick Cephaen butt then?"

"I'm sure I can strip a credit stick or two off a dead Cephean or two."

Jax just snorted and finished prepping the weapons.

All that was left was to wait for orders.

Alexandre glanced at his tactical officer for confirmation, at his nod, the Duke gave Hex a salute and closed the com link. ?Warit, keep me updated, we make for the ?Streyl? bring along the ?Arun?, the ?Ormil?, the ?Atlye? and the ?Hoyb? advise Viscount Dan?ack to hold Tanlere.? He would only take four of the Gothri class fighters with him. The ?Lorasy? was gunned sufficiently to engage the Cephean Ralarrad class making for the ?Streyl?. The Viscount aboard the ?Lercer? would hold orbit around Tanlere.

The four fighters were ordered to fall in with the ?Lorasy? and they broke away from Tanlere in a sublight jump toward the third moon of Lacerta. The Cephean Demon fighters and two Clarkson classes were well ahead of them on an intercept course for the ?Streyl?. Tactical reported closing distances as Alexandre considered the weapons aboard the Demons and the Clarkson ships. The Clarksons would be the most dangerous, each one sporting at least 2 heavy laser turrets. The Demon fighters would carry missiles, 2 meson blasters each, and 2 laser cannon each. They were light, maneuverable and very customizable, which was why the Cepheans loved to get their hands on them.

The Cih General aboard the command ship ?Cerad? swore nastily. Where the devil was Feizi? The General of the 11 Armies of the East was not ready for the engagement to begin. The Cepheans had jumped the gun by going after the Lacertian contingent in orbit around Tesyr, and Feizi was late!

He opened a link to the Cephean commander, ?Pogek, call your forces off, we are not ready to engage until General Feizi arrives with his contingent.?

The Cephean turned dark eyes on the image of the Cih General Veng?ti, ?You may await your forces, this ship is ours for the taking.? The link closed down and General Veng?ti uttered another vicious oath. ?Idiot,? he snarled. Veng?ti motioned to his tactical officer, they powered up the Antimatter gun. ?Keep the Lacertian ships clear of Pogek and his stupidity.?

The ?Cerilt? and her pilot adjusted course to move on an intercept of the ?Lorasy?. The invasion officially begun, and the Cih officially entered the fray.

((OOC Note: Cross posted HERE and HERE.))

"Sir, the target heavy cruiser is no longer in expected position." Taldren, the human tactical officer for the Defiance reported to Hex, "The vessel is identified as the 'Cerad'. She appears to have broken formation and is in pursuit of the 'Lorasy', Duke Alexandre's ship."

Hex frowned and nodded to Taldren then turned to the comms officer, Shaya Nevaroux, "Comms, relay new orders to the rest of the fleet. All warships are to distribute even fire on the three Ralarrad cruisers. Missile destroyers will open the first salvo, then all ships are to fire at will."
The elven woman saluted, then turned back to her console and began speaking in hurried, hushed tones. Next Hex turned to the navigation station, where Erik Krievar waited expectantly, a grin on the human's face. "Navigation, set course. We're to circle the enemy fleet until they are thinned out. Comms, relay that to the fleet. Additionally, I want half our bombers and interceptors to break formation after launch and rendezvous with the Lorasy. They are to engage the Cerad and her escorts to hold them off as long as possible."
Both officers nodded again and got to work, with Erik engaging his neural interface and 'diving' into the ship, essentially controlling the cruiser as an extension of his own body. Finally Hex turned back to Taldren, "Tactical, target the first cruiser's engines and weapons systems equally, then fire at will. Vonkar, you have the bridge. I will be taking command of the fleet directly."

Hex stepped down from the command station and Vonkar, the ship's original commanding officer, saluted then sat down. Hex walked over to an auxillary station, then opened several command channels and faceted it's conciousness. Each fragment of Hex's overall mind connected with the command systems aboard the cruisers in each battle group. In this manner, Hex could observe the overall battle in a simulated space, and issue orders much faster than an organic commander.

Even now, the Iron Dragons ships were turning to new vectors, orienting on the main blockade fleet. At the vanguard of the ID fleet were the twenty-four destroyers, each armed with a wide assortment of anti-fighter and anti-warship missiles, as well as multiple point-defense cannon turrets. In addition to their primary armament, each destroyer was escorted by three heavy bombers, armed with twelve anti-warship missiles.
This comprised only the first wave of the Iron Dragons attack, for behind the destroyers were six light cruisers, eighteen cruiser-class carriers, and thirty-six frigates for outer defense.

As the destroyers closed into weapons range, the forward sections of their hulls opened outwards into four 'arms', running away from the central spine in an X. These arms, which housed the missile launcher systems, began to slowly spiral on a central axis, while hatches along the arms began to open. When the ships reached maximum firing range, puffs of gas began ejecting missiles from the launchers, running up one row of an arm, then back down. The rotation of the arms made the launch paths of each missile turn into a spiral as they floated away from the ship. After reaching a safe range, the missiles' primary engines lit up, flying away towards their targets in widening arcs.

Each destroyer launched twenty anti-warship missiles, for a total of four hundred eighty warheads which now drove on towards the Cih's Ralarrad vessels...