RM Special Omake: ERS Tirpitz


    Explosions rake the dorsal hull of the SES Fortunate Son as stray sma shots from a nking Automatons squadron miss their intended target, the Super Destroyer SES Legitor of Supremacy, and hit the Assault Carrier instead. Still, the Automatons has achieved its objective for the most part, and that is tocrippleAssault Carrier''s screening force, leaving them dangerously exposed to the rest of the Automatons Fleet.


    "SITREP!" Fleet Admiral Hackett shouted as he mmed his fist on the armrest, frustration evidenced in his voice. All around the grizzled war veterans are bridge officers and crew scrambling topile reports and send out orders everywhere.


    "Fleetbat readiness is down to 47%! EscortsJudgeof Innocence and Shepherd of the Free, lost! Cruiser Agent of Authority is disabled! Destroyer Legitor of Supremacy reports heavy damage!"


    "Flight deck reports Runway 1 is disabled! They''re trying to get the catapult back online!"


    "Fires in Deck 1 and 2, we''re venting atmosphere in the upper deck!"


    And the stream of unfavorable reports keeps piling in, much to the Admiral''s consternation. Squeezing his hand into a fist, the man startsdolling outorders, hopefully enough to not try and win thebattle,but to survive for as long as possible. "Damage control to the upper decks! Put out the fires and seal the breaches! Have our remaining Liberty Escorts move to fillinthe gap in our point defense! Move the rest of the fleet to cover the Agent of Authority until she can recover! And I need that enemy enemy Shrike squadron eliminated ten years ago!"


    As the new string of orders isbeing passeddown the line,Hackett starts operating the MFD screen by the right side of his chair.A secondter, he pulls up aary map,one thatisdenotedas Malevlon Creek. Hackett frownsheavilyas the territories painted in red, signifying Automatons'' control, heavily overshadowed the territories held by the Helldivers, painted in blue. Even with dozens of thousands of boots on the ground, they have thus far been unable to secure a proper beachhead.Rather, the Helldivers are slowlybeing whittled downby the mechanical horde. Their situation is not dissimr to what''sgoing onin space right now, where the Automatons vessels outnumbered the Super Earth Navy 4 to 1.


    Suffice it is to say, things are bleak. At first, things had been going quite well with the Malevelon Liberation Fleet swiftly destroying the stationed Automatons floti, thus clearing the way for waves of Helldivers tobe droppedonto the jungle.The initialndings of the Helldivers had been metwith some resistance, which was to be expected and ounted for. After an hour of fighting,a securending zone had been clearedfor more and more units to touch down.It''sexpectedthat by the next twelve hours,a proper FOB will be set up.To facilitate the process, Hackett''s fleet had positioned itself in a geosynchronous orbit above Malevelon, with the support vessels and Super Destroyers dolling out everything that is required by the Helldivers.With half of the fleet locked in aary liberation roll, Hackett was ill-prepared for when ahugeAutomatons fleet arrivedin the system. Now, Hackett wasn''t a stupid man, hehad nned for a potential counter-attack from the Automatons space force. The man even worked under the assumption that with the manufacturing capability of the Automatons, his original fleet would be outnumbered 3 to 1. Yet, the Automatons jumped into the system with a fleet six times Hackett''s. Despite the obvious disadvantage, Fleet Admiral Hackett isn''t a man to back down from a challenge, nor are any members of his fleet. With an already sizeable Helldivers force on the ground, retreat in the face of such an odd will spell their doom.


    Thus, the second space battle for Malevelon Creekmenced in earnest. It has tobe notedthat with pure skill and grit, Hackett''s fleet has managed to destroy a significant part of the Automatons'' counter-attack fleet, shortening the gap to a 4 to 1 ratio. Still, while the Automatons fleet has received a punch and a half to their metallic noggings, Hackett''s fleet is also down to a mere 21 battle-damaged vessels from their original 43. If it''s any constion for Hackett, his fleet has managed to stop any new orbital incursion by the Automatons, thus giving the Helldivers some leeway on the ground, emphasis on some.


    But the man knowsfull wellthat a stubborn defense will not do Super Earth any good here. Help is still a long way out, and it''s not like Hackett canjustretreat and leave the Helldivers to their death and possible conversion to be those damnable machines. Thinking throughall ofhis options, Hackett decides that the most important thing right now is time. Buy enough time, then the Helldivers below can further consolidate their forces and dig in. Buy enough time, thenreinforcement can arrive and end the Automatons on Malevelon Creek for good. If that cost the entirety of his fleet...Then so be it.


    "Pass my orders! All remaining vessels are to deployall oftheir Helldivers and ground assetsside!"


    "Butsir! That will make our fleet into a sitting duck!"


    "And that will give the Helldivers the fighting chance they need!I don''t care if some of them got blown up halfway there! As long as a portion of the wave gets through the ks, then they will be kicking asses and taking names in our stead!"


    Hackett then continues. "Our fleet has always been the foremost shield of liberty, democracy, and freedom! I will be damned if that shield breaks before it can leave behind any meaningful impact! Am I right, sailors!?"


    The shortencouragingspeech elicits a chorus of positive affirmation from the bridge crew. Soon enough, Hackett''s fleet reorganizes into an orbital liberation formation.


    "Helldivers to Hellpods! Helldivers to Hellpods!"


    "Dispatching Shuttle 1 through 10side! I don''t care what the fuck you are hauling, just go touch grass and kick ass!"


    "Fighter bombers standby for retasking for atmosphere reentry and CAS sorties. Status on Runway 1? Good! Prepare it for immediate use!"


    Waves afterwaves ofHellpodsareunchedfrom the remaining Super Destroyers, Liberty Fast Strike Cruisers, Adjudicator Heavy Cruisers, and the SES Fortunate Son. Following right behind them are flights of shuttles and fighter bombers, poised to drop supplies, heavy weapons, and ordinance to aid the Helldivers in establishing a stronghold.Understandably, this maneuverleavesthe Malevelon Liberation Fleetvery exposedto the Automatons'' nking attack.And the damn machines know that too, henceit doesn''t take them long to capitalize on the opportunity, sending numerous cruisers to overwhelm the limping Super Earth fleet. Hackett won''t go down without a fightthough.


    In an impressive showing of ast stand, the remaining primary batteries of Hackett''s fleet open up, sending out countless shellstracers, missiles, and energy beams to greet the gleaming obsidian fleet.Rather than spreading out the damage, specific instructions havebeen madeto prioritizethetargetingofthe Automatons'' drive cores.By eliminating their mobility, Hackett''s fleet will be able to lessen the immediate pressure on themselves, and if they manage to cause a reactor meltdown on the Automatons'' ships, lucky them. And while Super Earth''s kic weapons aren''t as damaging as the Automatons'' sma weaponry, they make up for the sheer number they have aboard a vessel. Meaning they can easily tear through any threat if given enough time.


    Still, time is what they don''t have in abundance.Because of this, Hackett has the kic weaponry and missile tubes focusing on the easilyeliminatethreat first and foremost,and thatmeans the Automatons fighter swarms and Shrike destroyers.The machines'' heavier Oppressor cruiser will be a prime target for the energy beam from Hackett''s own cruisers. The only downside for this tactic is that the Oppressor cruisers have modr, external armor tes.By usingthose tes, an Oppressor can dissipate the heat from Hackett''s beam weaponry before promptly purging the damaged te. The lightened weightthengives the Oppressor a higher top speed and eleration, making it an evengreaterthreat in this situation. And due tothe nature ofenergy weapons being an immature technology, there''s a long cooldown between shots before an Oppressor canbe taken outfor good. It''s why Super Earth vessels always employ a mixture of kic and energy damage against the Automatons'' navy. Their kic weapons are able to perforate the armor tings and render it useless against a beam attack.


    Despite theobviousthreat posed by the Automatons cruisers, Hackett still chooses to eliminate fighters and destroyers first, unwilling to let them sneak past the blockade and assault the Helldivers that have barely been able to seize a foothold after the desperate dive earlier.Thismayverybe hisst stand, here, above this jungle.The man can''t stophimself fromcaressing a ring on his finger, proof of his happilymarriagelife with his beloved wife back on Super Earth.Still, what will be, will be.


    An alert instantly grabs his attention as two Liberty Escorts receive critical damages, with one suffering from a reactor meltdown. An immediate order for evacuation of the vesselsis given, but unfortunately, one has already exploded before a single escape pod managed tounch.These two Liberty Escorts havebeen providingHackett''s ragtag fleet with an imprable wall of ks. With them gone,a gap hasbeen made, one that the Automatons'' destroyers seize and utilize by sending out arge wave of missiles.The remaining CIWS aboard the fleet try their best to intercept the iing projectiles, painting a marvelous picture of tracers and explosions in the space around them. But it isn''t enough.


    mming heavily along the dorsal hull of the SES Avenger of Proxima, an Adjudicator Heavy Cruiser, the Automatons missiles cake the vessel with numerous explosions, big and smalike. The hits have been extensive enough, covering most of the dorsal hull of the cruiser and destroying the dorsal missileuncher turrets and beam cannons of the heavy cruiser. Soon after the debilitating strike, the Avenger of Proxima falls behind the formation. The missiles have critically damaged her drive core, leaving herbeing pulled downby Malevelon''s gravity. Already, there are escape podsbeingunchedfrom the sinking Avenger. With a mainstay of his fleet gone in a sh, Hackett must now grimly face a renewed Automatons assault with one-third of his firepower gone.


    Unable to contest or dy the approaching Automatons fleet adequately anymore, the firsts of the enemy Oppressor cruisers have reached point-nk range. By this point, even the Liberation Fleet''s CIWS has to chime in and do as much damage asit canon the Oppressors. One enemyship,andanother,before another one got disabled, but there are still four of them. And now, those four have leveled themselves a stone-throw above the Fortunate Son, Hackett''s gship.


    Opening their hideous underbelly, the four Oppressors deployed their abominable boarding crafts with almost certainly host hundreds of those walking machines.It doesn''t take a genius to know that the Automatons want to capture the FortunateSon, andalongwith it,her crew. Most probably, the machines willwant to harvest their organs and brainsto further bolster the Automatons'' force.


    Hackett will not let it happen. He would rather die a man than a machine.His service pistolwhichneveronceleaves hissideis a cold reminder of that mandate.


    Asthe enemy boarding crafts approached ever so closely to the Fortunate Son and under intense covering fire by the Oppressor cruisers, Hackett''s fleet didn''t stand and watch.Even with the near-crippling damage it suffered before, the Legitor of Supremacy braves forward in a suicidal maneuver. With its dorsal weaponry destroyed, the Super Destroy turns its body, giving its ventral turretsare clearline of sight at the four enemy boarding crafts. With righteous fury andindignation, its cannons and CIWS unleash a hail of metals and death at the boarding crafts,pletely shredding and destroying them midflight.Thishappens all the while the Oppressors are struggling to hit the fast Super Destroyer, which has pushed its ten sublight engines to critical failure threshold on a desperate dash to save the gship.


    Knowingthat theirdeath is inevitable, the Super Destroyer captain hails Hackett''s ship onest time. "Admiral Hackett, sir,"Atired, butstalwart female voice can be heardon the other end. "It has been an honor."


    Punching their RCS thrusters to overdrive, the Legitor of Supremacy drifts into space before speeding toward an Oppressor cruiser on a crash course, all thewhile firing off its remaining weapons on another one.


    "This is ast huzzah of brave, human souls!"A scream can be heardacross allms channels. "UP! YOUR! ASS!"


    With a mighty crash, the suicidal Super Destroyer rams its intended target.A bright sh happens in outer space, with theonly sounds everyone can register are those of hyper-velocity fragments hitting the hulls of their ships.In her final run, the Legitor of Supremacy has taken down one enemy cruiser while disabling anotherone. That still leaves two rtively intact enemy cruisers in the heart of Hackett''s fleet. And they are fully intending to finish the job.


    Knowingthat theycannot capture the Fortunate Son, the remaining Automatons cruisers go in for the kill. By taking out Hackett''s ship, harvesting the rest of the humans would be much easier. While it''s not as good as capturing the Super Earth Admiral alive for his ingenuity, the Automatons would still be able to regain some of their losses while getting a foothold in the system.


    Even with Hackett''s explicit order to concentrate fire on the two cruisers, most of the fleet doesn''t havea goodangle to engage them, thus leaving the Fortunate Sonhopelesslyexposed. Being aary Assault Carrier, the Fortunate Son has little ship-to-shipbat capability. A weakness that is nowbeing exploitedby the heavily armored Automatons cruisers.


    That is until...


    "Detecting massive space-time fluctuation! It...It''s right above us!"A bridge crew shouted, rming Hackettwhile also instilling him withaforlornsense of hope.


    Suddenly, faster than one can blink, a ship is already there...No, can you even call it a ship anymore?


    What has arrived, with its blue screen of energy smashing into the two Oppressors and crushing them into mere fragments and debris, is something that probably dwarfs thergest Super Earth Fleet in total tonnage.Its shadow casts overnot justthe remnant of Hackett''s fleetbut alsoa sizeable portion of thendmass on Malevelon Creek itself.Itsverypresence alone causes an undeniable lull in the battlefields, both ground and space alike, as man and machine alike gaze into the object with awe, reverence, and fear.


    Gulping dryly, a crewmember struggles to report the readings on his screen. "A-Admiral...Thisis probably a mistakebut...That thing! It''s...It''s 12 kilometers in length! Height of 2 two kilometers, Width of 5 kilometers! The energy level reading is off the chart! It''s an entire city!"


    Even Hackett struggles to shake his head. Still, he exins as he gazes at the underbelly of the beast. "Your doubt is understandable, sailor. But believe it or not, it''s a vessel. The dead giveaways that it is a vessel, albeit ludicrous in size, are those humongous engines and the letters bearing its full names on the ventral side. Can you perform a deeper scan?"


    "N-Negative, sir! Whatever the thingis made outof, it is scrambling out scanners!"


    "Then it is safe to say that the vessel is also dwarfing us in the technological sensetoo." Even the Automatons ships canbe scannedby Super Earth technologies, Hackett thinks to himself.


    But unbelievably, or perhaps unsurprisingly, to them all, it''s the Automatons that make the first move, and itain''tfriendly. The still numerous machine vessels unleash bolts of red sma on the new arrival. But shockingly, a blue film of energy intercepts the iing attacks before it can even get near the physical hull of the unidentified vessel. It appears to be an energy shieldof sorts, one that Hackett knows for sure that Super Earth still hasn''t mastered to be used on space-faring vessels.


    Hackett watches on as the sma bombardmentsts fora fullfive minutes, theman and everyone else soon grow numb to the fact that the energy shielding seemingly takes no damage whatsoever. It would seem that the Automatons finally meet their match in terms of technological prowess.


    Suddenly, a public broadcast appears on everysinglereceiver, Super Earth and Automatons alike. Hackett quickly gives the words to hear it, an action thatis mirroredby pretty much everyone else.


    Animperial female voice can be heardon the broadcast. "This is Marshal Yukia Rosetta de Venusian on the ERS Tirpitz of the Eternal Reich. Aggressive mechanical lifeformsthat areparticipating in hostile acts on ourship,stand down immediately or face immediate termination.Thisis yourfirst,and only warning."


    Hackett has the mind to askwhilethe others can only stare dumbly at the now-identified ERS Tirpitz. "Do we even have any data on those names?"


    "Negative, Admiral!" More questions arise that Hackett swiftly stomps them down.


    Despite the warning, the seemingly dumb machines still continue on with their attacks. Hackett immediately orders on a fleetwide channel. "ALCON, ALCON, do not engage the ERS Tirpitz! I repeat, do not engage the ERS Tirpitz under any circumstance! All units are to reform around the gship immediately!"


    The Marshal''s voice can be heardscoffing at the tant ignoring of her wordsby the Automatons.With a dismissal voice, she orders. "Ship tobat status. Charge up all weapon banks and lock weapons on allof thehostile vessels. Deploy our escorts and wings, Iwant this entire airspace locked down tight. Leave no survivors, wewill extract data from their fried motherboard if we have to."


    The Super Earth sailors, Hackett included, watch in muted shock as the Tirpitz opens up its many hangars, bothrge and small ones. From therge hangars, ten other vesselsare deployedfrom the belly of the beast, with each and every single one of them dwarfing a Super Destroyer in size. Not stopping there, countless spacecraft continuously fly out from the Tirpitz, thesheer number of them is enough to overwhelm the sensors of the Fortunate Son. Then, the Tirpitz glows!The shipwithitshull ofspotless white and gold,glows as wings of golden light appear around the vessel.Hackett can barely see on the visual feed of retractable weapon banksbeing deployedon the Tirpitz.


    And then the Automatons fleet is no more.


    They are just...gone in the blink of an eye.


    With heavybreathing,and still in disbelief, a crewman reports. "Sir... All enemy vessels...They''re gone."


    "No... They got evaporated after that burst of light."


    Suddenly, everybody hears an amazed whistle. "Nice! Though I guess it was a bit overkill to set the output at three percent, don''t you think so, Tirpitz?"


    "It is as you have said, Marshal."