Fierce Interception

.

(Damn, I nearly forgot... The double monthly-vote period should still be going, right? Anyone with votes left can cast them. Also—guess what the biggest gift in this Shadow Space is?)

The alert for a Hyperspace Strike and the report discovering the Shadow Space control core arrived almost simultaneously. Just as we had suspected, the Vengeance Legion possessed formidable detection technology and took the defense of its headquarters extremely seriously. The instant the control core was scanned, they confirmed the invaders' location as well.

"Warning: Incoming Hyperspace Strike detected. High-energy reaction at the fleet perimeter... The crust of Twilight Three Planet Warship is rupturing. We are under air-dropped gravitational impact."

The instant the warning for air-dropped gravitational impact sounded, the Empire Fleet facing the attack had already suffered real damage. A group of Protoss carriers cruising in orbit around the Twilight Three Planet Warship seemed to be struck by a sudden gale, their formation thrown into violent chaos high above the North Pole. Three carriers collided and became a heap of twisted metal fragments, while the Escape Pods flung free shot at abnormal speed toward the incomparably hard artificial crust of the Planet Warship below. All of it happened within ten lightning-fast seconds.

It was my first time seeing this kind of attack. There were no energy beams, no high-yield warheads jumping in. Our ships were simply flung away for no apparent reason. According to the warship alerts, it was clearly some kind of gravity-based weapon, but I had never seen an attack method so elusive before.

All Planet Warships immediately activated gravitational isolation barriers, disconnecting themselves from this universe's gravitational system to prevent a larger-scale gravity assault. A horrifying rift nearly a thousand kilometers long and up to a hundred kilometers wide had been torn open near Twilight Three's