-=+ +=- [COMPLETED] The Second Universe -=+ +=-

Part 11: War Begins

The emperor, understanding that this time would be beneficial for both him and the leader of the OFR to make contact with each other, pulled up a call with him. It was a man who looked somewhat like a hybrid of human and alien, but spoke with a distinctly human voice. "So, hi. Your nation wanted to contact mine, yeah? By the way, I'm ████████████████████████, Emperor of the New World Union, as you know." The NWU's emperor began, preparing himself for any possible strange diplomatic behaviors that were usually natural from a civilization from another universe.

The president of the OFR responded. "Aleksandr Ivanovich, president of the OFR. It is very nice to meet you under these friendly circumstances. But, knowing the state of your nation and of the CROS, who happens to be our enemy as well, you probably want to talk about the war first, yes?" The emperor responded as well. "I was thinking more we focus more on peace efforts between us before we talk about your country getting involved in the war we started."

"Ah, I understand. So we will focus on establishing embassies, passports, and things like trade first?" The emperor nodded. "I would prefer that, yes." And as would usually happen, negotiations began between the two countries regarding the aforementioned points as well as economical matters and travel regulations, and then onto the small details, then to the topic of war.

"We cannot join the war yet, since we have some domestic matters to deal with, and even though joining and winning the war might put an end the issues, gaining high casualties anyway will still worsen the situation..." The president continued for a little while, explaining why the OFR was unfit to join the war on the CROS.

"Alright, please, calm down. I understand your country can't join us, and that is alright." The emperor attemped to calm President Ivanovich, which succeeded, and the meeting ended shortly after, a lot of good progress having been made.

[I'm also pretty sure you don't want to keep on reading random diplomatic negotiations]

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"Ambush"

December 20, 35794 - 21:45:23

Strike Group Thuia-Gamma

Interstellar Cloud 'AA-17'

Interstellar Formation 'West' of SRF 'Benben'

Another naval strike group that was dispatched to the Thuian Universe, Thuia-Gamma, activate their cloaking while inside of Interstellar Cloud AA-17. The cloud possessed immense thaumaturgical energy, which, through some prior testing, had proven to have been able to jam thaumaturgic radar and detection systems. Coupled with New World Union cloaking tech, this would likely make the formation completely invisible.

Intel acquired showed that the CROS were massing a fleet to surprise attack SRF 'Benben' from its 'west', and a few minutes later, the strike group waited. The completely unaware CROS fleet sailed into the massive cloud with their comm systems deactivated. The fleet sailed a few million miles into the cloud, before the New World Union made their move.

The massive strike group, equal in number to the CROS fleet, immediately opened up with an even more massive missile barrage. Each ship fired 1000 missiles, essentially creating a cloud of missiles that were now being sent straight at the CROS fleet. These missiles, however, were not normal missiles, and they had the same translucent multicolored star-dotted auras as thaumaturgical weaponry.

Some simple runes first were carved into the warheads of the missiles, with a warning label next to them indicating that they would increase the warhead's explosive power by thirtyfold. The scores of missiles launched by the vessels, flying at ridiculous speeds, slammed into CROS ships, and immediately threw the formation into chaos.

CROS ships frantically manuevered about, communications steadily growing more frantic yet still not immediately collapsing due to existing CROS discipline. The NWU vessels maintained their distance, continuing to pound CROS formations and fire their turrets. Strike Group Thuia-Gamma's weapons proved to be extra effective against CROS shielding and armor, and swarms of aircraft frequently flew down and their missiles swamped CROS groups like bees.

Many NWU strike group ships frequently ran through the formation in comparatively small groups, firing their guns all around yet still with precise accuracy, causing heavy structural and system damage to whatever they hit. IFC installations constructed nearby turned their massive weapons towards the site of the ambush, and they slammed scores and scores of CROS ships in their first salvo.

The first salvo had taken out about 27% of the total amount of ships, and above a quarter of what remained. New World Union ships, who were brimming with thaumaturgical energy, fired their guns again and again, accompanied by missile showers. More thaumaturgical munitions had been fired at the CROS to incredibly devastating effect.

Even more ships exploded or even disintegrated from the sheer heat and power of New World Union munitions, yet the same could not be said of the New World Union's strike group themselves. Gigantic amounts of Unioner ships were frequently among the wreckage, yet their losses were still being replaced faster.

The battle had now become a losing war of attrition for the CROS, since the NWU was able to better replace their losses, though the CROS were still able to inflict massive casualties. Equally massive pushes from Strike Group Thuia-Gamma from above and below the enemy fleet worked like charms, the thick clouds of interstellar thaumaturgic dust aiding in signature masking.

Wherever these attacks happened, masses of enemy naval vessels were left destroyed and rotting, and these attacks did not occur once in a while. As CROS comms became even more frantic, comms on the NWU side was rather calm and maintained a sense of organization. The up-and-down spearing attacks into the CROS were being spammed.

Every few minutes, another one of these coordinated attacks took place, still supported by loitering Strike Group elements providing missile and artillery aid. Living turrets in particular, paired with their new thaumaturgical enhancements, wrought havoc upon the really unfortunate CROS vessels, even more so than their fully mechanical counterparts.

Every now and then, a planet-destroying artillery accelerator system was fired from a carrier, which would rather obviously take out huge swathes of CROS ships. As hours passed and CROS ships were being blown to bits, many had simply opted to surrender, and were taken into the NWU line and told to wait.

They were rather unfortunately sort of forced to watch their comrades, through incredibly zoomed in lenses, be absolutely annihilated by composite fire from sources mentioned before. At this point, CROS communications were filled with frantic, terrified, and frenzied voices attempting to coordinate some sort of counterattack.

Since their comms were so loud and easy to tap into, New World Union ship controllers, with the help of code-breaking algorithms and AI, often had some level of fun blowing up the ship that was doing the most talking and watching their comms networks return into their almost constant state of panic. 

As the hours dragged on and more ships and crafts were destroyed on both sides, the CROS eventually had one last ship left, which was a dreadnought. The ship controllers on the NWU side opted to simply fire a ton of missiles at the final ship, and its final explosion surrounded by the husks of its once operational teammates caused laughter to emerge. The New World Union's first deployment of widely-used thaumaturgical weaponry was a complete success.

5085 words real!!1!1

v1.0.0. March 4, 2024, release