This brave Imperial destroyer had apparently been preparing to close in on Fortress 2 and try to fire a proton torpedo. But before that powerful weapon could be brought to bear, she was hit and put out of action.
Her eventual breakup failed to breach Fortress 2's outer wall. Even so, it proved that the fortress's energy shield had been pushed to its limit during the battle.
Right after that, a sublight missile launched from extreme range by an Imperial Lance-class cruiser was intercepted 250,000 kilometers from the fortress.
That was the final note of this wave of Imperial attacks. As the nearby Commonwealth warships cut the Lance-class cruiser in half with a salvo from their main guns, the Imperial fleet began to withdraw.
The good news was that everyone had won yet again, and the exchange ratio had been excellent.
The bad news was that everyone knew the enemy would be back soon. The Commonwealth's officers could also sense that the enemy was paying a huge price to clear the outer bunkers and trenches, much like they were doing now. And indeed, they had paid dearly. Six full-scale assaults over two weeks had left the Empire with the wrecks of more than a hundred warships along the midpoint between the two forces, including a battlecruiser and a large armored carrier.
But perhaps the Imperial military considered those costs worth paying. By now, their light warships could get close enough to attack the central fortress cluster directly. That meant that one more step forward, and a full-scale landing assault would be the natural next move.
Of course, there was one thing to be glad about: everyone's morale was holding up fairly well. The fleet's big shots had at least seen the Imperial warships they'd hit burning in the starry sky