“Spirits and Ash! What in damnation happened to that ship?!”
“You haven’t been paying much attention to things have you dear friend?”
“Perhaps not, I’m usually buried neck deep in schematics and further development plans thanks to Lady Brezia’s constant developmental schedule for the planet, so… humor me. What happened?”
“Triglavians happened. That’s the old wolf’s flagship.”
“I… wait. The one that she committed to Skarkon II as an atmospheric combat command platform?”
“The very same. Its been operating in atmosphere for… damn, three months now? Pushed the limits of the atmospheric hull coatings on that alone… and its been in active combat since it arrived there. Even took a suicide ram filled with nukes and stayed in the sky.”
“Is she insane?!”
“Keep your voice down Vrika… you know that the Brezias are not known for backing out once committed.”
“I know that… Ashes look at the resources that are continually poured into the Project here… but… you said that the Triglavians happened. I thought that they weren’t focusing down craft in atmospheres if they stayed out of the way?”
“Generally that seems to be the case… but something changed in the last thirty-six hours, at least in Skarkon it seems. See how those plates are buckled along the Crow’s Nest and main chassis? How its melted smooth and rippling?”
“■■■■, that’s disintegrator damage.”
“Tetryon exotic plasma, specifically. I don’t know too much… and anything you hear didn’t come from me. But word is, a swarm of Liminal class trig ships came down hard on Wellspring during the last few hours it was in atmosphere. Scuttlebutt is they were Svarog aligned but there’s no way to confirm that.”
“Wouldn’t they show up with transponders?”
“Yes and no, there’s generally a lot of scramble in the data feeds in those kinds of actions.”
“So… in short… Lady Brezia got her backside handed to her?”
“Far from it actually… that supercarrier is outfitted to field clone pilots, so… all those craft that were out on SEAD operations messing with that insane system governor’s forces were terminated mid-flight and the pilots pulled back for rapid response. Nearly a third of its remaining craft compliment was destroyed, but they pushed them off before a cyno was lit in the neighboring Ennur system and it was withdrawn.”
“So… why did they attack?”
“I don’t have that information dear friend. But the ferocity And damage of it speaks for itself. I couldn’t get a straight answer from any of the crew that I’ve spoken too, but apparently several evacuation ships were caught in the crossfire while they were trying to dock in the maintenance hangars. If they see a threat for whatever reason, it seems they don’t care what is in between. What I do know is… Lady Brezia has been incredibly irritable since her return… I’d hate to be one of her usual clients right now.”
“Aren’t you one to talk Orsan.”
“Hush you… we should get back to work. That ship is going to be needing an entire system and structural overhaul… we’re going to be at this for weeks.”