To be fair, it wasn't the fortress of Saed charging toward them. This thing, though no match for the Empire's Skyhold, was still a colossal structure over sixty kilometers in diameter and weighing hundreds of megatons.
With current sublight engine technology, pushing something like this along was possible through sheer brute force. Install a few hundred engines from dreadnoughts or large transport ships, and you could get it moving. But exactly how that would work out in terms of maneuverability and speed was another matter entirely.
In fact, it took the Imperial officers several more minutes to finally confirm that part of the fortress of Saed had detached from the main structure and was accelerating toward them.
A few minutes later, they had even determined the mass and outline of the object.
"Total mass between 2.7 and 3 billion? Twice that of the Alliance's Poseidon ship!" Lieutenant General Tanlian studied the latest report. "It's been stripped off the fortress? Wouldn't that cause structural damage?"¹
"Well, perhaps, but it's hard to say what the exact impact would be," her adjutant replied.
Lieutenant General Tanlian glanced at him, thinking that after this battle she would need to replace not only her chief of staff, but her damn adjutant too.
The adjutant seemed to sense the danger and hurriedly added, "Actually, the fortress of Saed was originally a military fortress, but over the years, commercial needs arose, and it went through several rounds of expansion. The sections are connected using magnetic balancing devices made from Lumina's Taion alloy, which helps keep costs down..."
"You mean this was added later, so it's relatively easy to detach?" Lieutenant General Tanlian asked.
"Could it be that the people of Earth planned this long ago?"
"And this section is a civilian area?" Lieutenant General Tanlian mused.
Even