Just then, the Imperial Fleet moved.
The Blade of Sorrow's main gun fired first.
An unimaginably thick beam of golden light tore through the darkness of the void. Wherever it passed, space itself warped.
"Evade! Full evasive maneuvers!" Shadowsun shouted.
But the beam was not aimed at her flagship. Its target was the largest defensive platform in orbit around T'au, the Shield of Heaven.
Over fifty kilometers in diameter, this colossal platform was the pinnacle of T'au engineering. Its shields could withstand a full simultaneous salvo from a conventional fleet, and its weapons systems could lock onto hundreds of targets at once.
But against the main gun, none of that mattered.
The golden beam struck the platform's central shield generator. The immense surge of energy instantly punched through its multiple shield layers, melted armor hundreds of meters thick, and pierced straight through the platform's core.
A chain reaction of reactor explosions followed one second later.
Before everyone's eyes, it began to swell from the center, glowing red before bursting into countless fragments. The explosion's shock wave swept across hundreds of kilometers, hurling away several T'au frigates that had failed to withdraw in time.
"We've lost the Shield of Heaven platform's signal!"
"Massive debris cloud detected! It's spreading toward our formation!"
"Damn it!" Shadowsun clenched her teeth. "Order the second battle group to lay down interception fire and clear the debris! All orbital platforms, concentrate fire and strike back!"
The T'au finally began their counterattack.
Three hundred orbital platforms opened fire at once. Thousands of ion cannon rounds and pulse missiles poured out like a torrential downpour, weaving a deadly web of fire through the void. Blue-white streams of energy illuminated the entire battlefield, a sight both magnificent and terrifying.
The Imperial Fleet's vanguard frigates bore the brunt of the attack.