Resistance quotient of the Telviran fleet was higher than Captain Remilliod had expected. Despite the seamless cooperation between fatbeams, point-defense lasers and flak cannons, the second salvo of capital missiles actually penetrated Misanthropy's armor in several places, exploding the thin air - as well as several unfortunate crewmembers - inside into space. Combat AIs reported several major fractures in the frontal shield, all the while the combat wasps were being shot down like... like wasps. Despite the severity of the space battle raging outside, the irony in this did not escape the Captain.
On his orders, Misanthropy emptied her bowels (urk!), launching 400 more combat wasps as well as 100 larger and heavier "combat hornets", which carried hypervelocity kinetic impactors and corrosive bombs filled with armor-eating nanobots. As these war drones began approaching the Telviran fleet, Misanthropy ceased firing with flak cannons and fatbeams. Instead, the majority of her combat battery's output went into her most powerful long-range weapon - the "spatial artillery cannon". Situated at the very the top of the frontal shield, this weapon ran through the entire lenght of the superfreighter, and now its numerous magnetic coils consumed enormous amounts of energy, enough to power the entire industry of some smaller planets for years.
The entire hull of Misanthropy quaked as the matter-antimatter implosion shell was propelled into high relativistic velocity and hurled towards the hostile ships through the cold space, now nearly frozen in time due to relativistic dilation. Among the oldest rules in space combat was that relativistic weapons were a true nightmare to those on the receiving end: by the time you noticed you were under attack, there was very little you could actually do.
Let's see how you're going to deal with this, Telvirans, Captain Remilliod thought.
Can we just say i snuk by because my ship is so small.
