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"I've got you, now!" Khan announced. The Iron Scarab broke its lines, charging the Zelconian fleet.

"Prime our broadside batteries, and launch our missiles." Khan ordered. The Chief of Staff nodded, and the Heidomus lunged into action. From bellow deck, no less than two dozen city-sized E-grade atomic-fusion subspace torpedoes were launched from their tubes, into the cold Void. Immediately after leaving their resting places, the torpedoes activated hyper-speed tachyon drives, generating a subspace bubble, and began accelerating beyond the speed of light.

The Iron Scarab's heavy Deimos cannons entered their primary range, and focused on the confrontational Zelconian flagship. In a classic display of naval heritage, the Iron Scarab fired all of its cannons in unision, focusing them at the bridge of the Heidomus. The older ship's shields flared violently as they suppressed the incoming energy. Khan closed in, but didn't open fire quite yet.

The Iron Scarab fired a second time. The shield indicators blared a warning. The generators began to overheat as they struggled to divert power into the failing defensive matrix.

"Hold on." Khan said, gripping his seat.

The Iron Scarab closed within optimal distance. It fired a third time. The shields of the Heidomus flashed a brilliant crimson. Several Deimos pulses made it through, impacting the reinforced plating with a dull, watery thump.

"Broadside!" Khan suddenly yelled. His staff braced for action. The Heidomus turned on the entire side of maneuvering thrusters, forcing it into a ninety-degree spin. As it did so, that half of the ship's heavy proteus projection turrets fired their maximum charge of ionized beams into the foresection of the Iron Scarab. As the beams struck home, the atomic torpedoes impacted the Undead vessel's hull. First, there was the face of the Undead flagship, then a plume of incandescent light that flooded Khan's bridge.

"Fire, fire, fire!" Khan ordered. The turrets broke into a volley, hurling bolt after bolt of light into the madness. The crimson maw of the Iron Scarab emerged from the smoldering ruin of plasma and super-heated gasses. It was drenched in flame from the failing reactive armor, but it wasn't finished yet. It began accelerating rapidly. Stray Deimos beams repeated across its hull, impacting the Heidomus in random sections.

"Radiological alert!" a tracker reported. Khan only wordlessly observed as the foresection of the Iron Scarab continued to glow brighter and brighter. Traces of electro-static energy skimmed across its hull as it prepared a mighty counter-attack, all the while accelerating to ramming speed.

"Bring us about, prepare a volley of Proteus torpedoes!" Khan ordered. His ship possessed a large number of the smaller, faster missiles, usually deployed against fighters. He hoped to screen the enemy ship with a constant wave of energy that prevented its reactive armor from coming back on-line.

"Divert unused cannon cores into charging the Proteum-Madellius array!" Khan ordered. The untested, unfinished prototype weapon of the Heidomus. Khan knew most of his staff didn't even know what he was talking about. They just gave him a confused look.

"Aye, sir!" the Chief of Staff snapped to work. Khan accessed his console's personal override, and primed the mighty cannon. Beneath the ruined decks and torpedo bays, a monolithic device emerged from a concealed hangar. Along the belly of the mighty Zelconian warship, the barrel of a truly titanic weapon emerged. Rails locked into place, firing control centers blinked to life, and unprepared crew ran for cover. As the Heidomus accelerated alongside the Iron Scarab, preparing to avoid the enemy's own superweapon, she prepared her own longbow of carnage.

"Launch missiles!" Khan ordered. No less than three hundred smaller projectiles were deployed, swarming the Undead flagship with a screen of pinpricks. Death by a thousand needles. The Iron Scarab's skin belched a crimson shockwave as the missile struck, tearing off small chunks of its armor.

"Proteus-Madellius array at 25%!" the Chief of Staff reported.

The Iron Scarab fired its Dread Cannon. The slow-moving bolt of blood was larger than the entire Heidomus. The Undead Captain had positioned its weapon well. Radiological alarms sounded a second time.
"Our shields won't be able to resist that kind of radiation! It'll fry us alive!" A tracker reported.

"Bring us down, to grid 58C!" Khan ordered. The Heidomus took a steep dive. This deprived Khan of optimal deployment for his weapon. The Iron Scarab followed his descent, rapidly closing the distance.

"Another volley of missiles!" Khan ordered. Secondary hangars opened, and another swarm of projectiles screamed upwards, into the face of their attacker. One of the Iron Scarab's massive tusks shattered into a thousand fragments of glass.

Suddenly, another ship emerged into view. It was a Galorian psionic warfare vessel. Surrounded in a cloud of black smog, the mortally wounded ship turned on its side, preparing to impact the Iron Scarab.

"May Galor honor you all." A battered voice whispered through the com. "I die free!"

The Iron Scarab struck the Galorian ship. The impact was terrific. Khan wasn't even sure if it slowed down the Undead vessel at all. It shattered the ancient halls of his father's handcraft with a soundless boom, showering fragments across its hull. Again, a glow began collecting along the foresection of the Undead ship. The previous energy bolt was still travelling outwards, into the distance.

"Proteus-Madellius array at 75%!" the Chief announced.

"Bring us about. Give me a firing solution on the ship's front." Khan said. The chief nodded, and the Heidomus ascended. The Undead captain must have not been expecting this risky maneuver, and the Iron Scarab was forced to slow down.


"Array at 90%!" The Chief announced.

The Iron Scarab fired.

"Fire the Proteus-Madellius cannon!" Khan ordered.


The Heidomus continued to ascend. It's belly reflected a brilliant maroon from the enemy's cannon, but the red was slowly replaced by a dominant white-blue, coming from the secret weapon it possessed. A thick barrel, lined with shining rings of super-condensed electronic magnets. The rails focused, and the cannon belched a lance of deep blue. The super-accelerated Proteus energy, charged to the maximum Proteus spectrum, sliced into the Iron Scarab's foresection, and released its energy. A shockwave of uimagenable magnitude shot through the Undead ship, causing the energy of its armor to be reduced into its base elements. The Iron Scarab instantly fragmented, and shattered into a rain of glass.

The Dread bolt continued upwards. The Heidomus continued to ascend, but the bolt was too close. The radiation wave would hit them.

"All power to engines! May Galor see us through this dark hour!" Khan yelled. The mighty ship nosed upwards, but it was too late. The ship vibrated violently, throwing crew out of their chairs, and knocking out the ship's lights. The Dread Bolt continued upwards, into an unprepared Undead battlecruiser. The confused Myrookk vessel tried to veer out of the way, but it had been too occupied with its battle against the Arcane-classes. In the instant the Dread Bolt impacted the Undead vessel, it was vaporized.