The Riken fighter craft were equipped with two to four energy weapons and carried four space torpedoes. Due to their size, these energy weapons had smaller calibers, requiring concentrated fire to pose a threat to the space octopuses. Nonetheless, their sheer numbers made their long-range firepower formidable.
But the Rikens made a critical mistake: their fighters charged directly toward the Swarm’s space octopuses.
Had they maintained distance, using long-range firepower to steadily wear down the space octopuses and disrupt their evasive maneuvers, while coordinating with the main and secondary turrets of their warships, the octopuses would have struggled to prevail.
Instead, their decision to close the distance played right into the Swarm’s hands.
Although the chanical fighters were highly maneuverable, with thrusters at their tails and undersides for propulsion and directional changes, they were no match for the octopuses in terms of agility. In the void of space, the octopuses moved like sea creatures gliding through water, their countless tentacles acting as thrust chanisms to shift directions or halt abruptly at will.
While the Riken fighters managed to shoot down a few octopuses during their charge, the mont the two forces clashed, the battle shifted dramatically.
The space octopuses weaved effortlessly through the Riken fighter formations. Their tentacles latched onto nearby craft, gripping them tightly and tearing them apart.
The Riken drones, mass-produced and lightly armored, could withstand the octopuses’ initial tugs. But with a deliberate sacrifice of one or two tentacles, an octopus could pierce their engines, turning the drones into floating space debris.
This strategy, however, was not without cost, and the knights piloting the octopuses quickly devised a more refined thod of attack.
Instead of directly attacking the fighters, the octopuses clung to the craft, using their bodies as shields to lure in enemy fire.
When a space torpedo or energy beam targeted the host fighter, the octopus would detach at the last mont, leaving the unlucky craft to be struck by its own allies’ weapons.
This tactic left the Rikens paralyzed. Firing torpedoes beca a liability, and they were forced to hold back.
But the octopuses weren’t done. They clung to the fighters, using their strength to redirect the crafts’ trajectories, causing collisions with allied units.
As soft-bodied creatures, the octopuses exhibited extraordinary adhesive capabilities. They could move fluidly across a fighter’s surface, from the top to the underside, rendering targeting by other Riken fighters nearly impossible.
So octopuses even wrenched off the external torpedoes mounted on the fighters, hurling them back at the Rikens with devastating precision.
The Riken commander’s decision to engage in close combat quickly turned the battlefield into chaos. The octopuses thrived in the disarray, using the enemy fighters as cover while taunting their opponents relentlessly.
The Riken fighters, hesitant to fire and restricted in their maneuvers, beca sitting ducks. Even the warships’ main and secondary turrets ceased firing for fear of hitting their own forces.
“Pull the fighters back!” General Masai barked, his frustration boiling over. The Swarm’s unorthodox tactics left him humiliated in front of his peers.
The Riken pilots, already desperate to escape the increasingly untenable situation, eagerly complied. They turned their fighters and retreated.
But the battlefield was not so easily abandoned. The octopuses latched onto the retreating fighters like stowaways on a transport ship, hitching a ride back toward the Riken fleet.
Realizing the danger, the Rikens issued an ergency order. This ti, they prioritized eliminating the octopuses regardless of collateral damage.
The drones carrying octopus passengers were targeted in a sudden, ruthless assault. The octopuses were caught off guard and suffered heavy losses.
Only the octopuses attached to piloted fighters managed to survive the onslaught.
The Swarm had not anticipated the Rikens’ willingness to sacrifice thousands of drones to eliminate their enemies. It was a pragmatic choice; otherwise, the octopuses clinging to the fighters would eventually incapacitate the entire group.
However, the Rikens’ determination was not absolute. Hundreds of operational octopuses still remained, using piloted fighters for cover. These survivors continued to harass the fleet, preventing the fighters from fully retreating.
At that mont, the Swarm’s second wave of reinforcents arrived on the battlefield.
The Riken warships redirected their main and secondary turrets to face the incoming threat.
This wave of Swarm forces brought a slightly different configuration. Among the 500 Primordial Space Octopuses, 400 served as troop carriers, while the remaining 100 were ard with at least two electromagnetic railguns each, providing long-range fire support from the rear.
The railguns were particularly nacing at this range. Their projectiles reached the Riken fleet in just over a minute—too short a ti for the massive warships to evade.
Moreover, the energy emissions generated by the octopuses during their maneuvers closely resembled those produced by the railguns. In the chaotic battlefield environnt, the Rikens’ detection systems failed to distinguish the railgun attacks imdiately.
The first volley of over a hundred projectiles struck with devastating effect, catching the Rikens off guard.
The forward-most warships bore the brunt of the assault. Despite their thick frontal armor, the power of the Primordial Octopuses’ railguns was imnse.
Each railgun was over 300 ters in length, firing projectiles with diaters exceeding one ter. The impact was catastrophic.
Two warships had their forward sections obliterated by the kinetic energy alone, while several others sustained severe damage.
Alarms blared throughout the damaged vessels. Ergency protocols sealed off compromised compartnts, but the destruction was severe.
In the vacuum of space, individual survival beca insignificant. Many Riken crew mbers were blown out through breaches in the hull. Those wearing protective suits fared slightly better, but those in standard uniforms faced imminent death.
As nearby warships scrambled to rescue the survivors, the Swarm’s second volley arrived.
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