A gigantic Ironclad class dreadnought sat in Highspace, watching, waiting, all stealth systems online, power minimum, the titanic guns powered down and stowed behind massive doors in their gunports. The probe sat a distance away from the Ironclad, also cloaked, sweeping the area for a certain signal, the signal that the crew aboard the Dreadnought were waiting for. The signal of their enemy.

The tall, thin-faced captain rapped his claws of office against the arm of his command chair on the bridge of the Ironclad. He was getting bored, they had spent a week here already and no signal from the probe, command had given them one more day, the fleet needed to move on and they needed their greatest protector there with them.

Captain Kortegas shifted uncomfortably in his command jacket as he watched the screen along with all of his bridge crew, still had been just a spark on the edge of the scanning radius but now the other bar of the scanner was moving towards the spark's last location.

Kortegas grabbed an intercom mike and sent a message to all decks "Possible enemy sighting, prepare for battle stations"

The bar neared the location , a spark, a signal, what they had been waiting for. More scanning bars materialised on screen, confirming the signal, it was a Toallian craft, the very craft they had been waiting for.

"All stations, prepare for battle!" Captain Kortegas shouted down the intercom mike "Activate the probe, drop us down to Lowspace"

The stealth probe gave an acknowledgement and activated the Modulator, disrupting the flow of Highspace and sending all within its radius into Lowspace. Kortegas watched as everything around him became see through as the y made the transition, their molecules expanding to their original size as they entered Lowspace.

If the Ironclad had been big before, it was now 10 times the size it had been in Highspace.

The enemy was a craft that was vaguely egg-shaped, round at one end, pointed at the other, with a group of four engines under the point. Running from the point to the curve were lines of strange bumps, which Kortegas knew were weapon ports, and there were four beams protruding from the main body with a cluster of gunports on the ends. The ship suddenly came alive, as full power was flooded to all areas of the ship, stealth systems useless out of Highspace, and the massive guns sliding out of their gunports, changing the vats of superheated Xenon into plasma ammunition that would melt the hull of most Earthfleet ships.

The Toallian ship turned towards the Ironclad, the ridges glowing green as they charged their lasers, swarms of fighters disgorging from the under slung hanger bay, strange craft that were like a diamond, cut in half with a cockpit and two engines between the two triangles, an eight pointed star, the symbol of the rapidly growing Toallian empire symbolising their outward spread in all directions, seemed to hold all the pieces together. The weapons were on the inside of the triangles, and were powered as they left the hanger.

"Launch all fighters, target Toallian fighters and then enemy weaponry" Ordered Kortegas, monitoring the ships systems from his chair

In the belly of the Ironclad, the launch bays were a scene of frenzied activity as the ships were all prepared for launch and were loaded into the launch racks, five Phoenix class fighters to each half-rack, accompanied by three Serpent class gunpods in each half-rack. The launch crews fled the decks as pilots made sure their canopies were fully locked, then the great belly of the Ironclad opened and the launch racks dropped down. When an entire rack had left the belly of the dreadnought it split in the centre, five fighters either side as the next rack fell into place between the half-racks. This continued until five racks had exited the Ironclad, the graceful fighters glinting in the light of a far away sun, and the fighters, their curving wings sitting atop powerful engines of both propulsion and destruction, fired up the engines and shot off towards the swarm of Toallian fighters.

Lt Commander Jarrin sat in the pilot cockpit of the graceful Phoenix as it sped towards the Toallian Diamond flyers, or the Rusty kites, whichever name was used at the moment, he waited until the front rank were within his sights, and clamped his fingers down hard on the triggers, causing the two laser 'Lances' infront of his cockpit to spit forth a stream of hot light, cutting into the lightly armoured Diamonds of the Toallian fighters. Two torpedoes flashed past his cockpit and his interchange screen showed his co- pilot's smiling face, the Torps' had come from the pop up launchers located on the forward curving wings. Priming the heavy 'lance' under the cockpits Jarrin spun the Phoenix around and headed off towards more targets.

Pilot Keri Mechigan was not having as much luck as the Lt Commander, a hit from the twin cannons of the Rust Kites had blown away his co-pilot as a rapidly expanding cloud of boiling blood, this left Keri without either a navigator, Comms man or Torpedoes, all of which his Back-Seater had had control over. He squeezed off a flurry of 'lance' shots and turned sharply to avoid colliding with and enemy, he then saw an interesting pattern of holes appear in the front fork of his ship, then the entire fork blew off, leaving him with only a heavy 'lance' for defence.

Toallian cannon shots sped by his cockpit, followed by one of his curving tail sections. Not good. Keri tried to shake the pursuer off his remaining tail but to no avail, the twin cannons of an enemy fighter passed through one of the drive motors, destroying the stored fuel from the ramscoop intakes, ripping off the Phoenix's starboard side. Keri suddenly felt cold and saw in the split second before he died that both the right side of the cockpit, and his right arm, were gone.

The Toallian who had just obliterated Keri Mechigan laughed and rustled his wings, applauding himself on his kill, another mark on the hull, and another Quial beer back at the bar. The Toallian was still laughing when a Phoenix torpedo blew off his starboard wing, severing fuel lines and destroying one of his guns, the Phoenix that had fired the torpedo followed through with a heavy 'lance' shot that incinerated everything within the cockpit of the Diamond flyer.

Kortegas watched the unfolding battle as his ship ploughed on towards the main Toallian craft, the heavy plasma 'Lances' charged, venting excess plasma of side vents in clouds of purple fumes. He admired the little Phoenix fighters; he had looked over the specifications once. Twin vent ramscoops powered their sleek Terran Clan hulls with Hydrogen fuel. Under and above the forward curving wings were torpedo hatches, launchers that slid into the wing when not in use, along the main spine of the craft sat the twin cockpits, the rear one was for the co-pilot who managed navigation, torpedoes and communications, the pilot sat up front with the ship, the main twin 'Lances' and the under-slung heavy 'Lance' at his control. The spine ended in a twin point, the fork of the Phoenix, that was packed full of sensory equipment. Much better that the Hydra clan Ray class fighters, thought Kortegas as the Toallian vessel became locked in his sights

"All guns, you have your lock , fire, fire" he yelled down the intercom and the guns responded

The main 'Lances' hurled superheated xenon plasma at the enemy as the secondary plasma batteries let fly their superheated payload, the turrets using Super heavy 'Lances' shot forth long lines of piercing light, busting through enemy fighters on the way as the Flak domes that had been uncovered from their stand-by positions kept any adventurous enemy fighters at bay. The enemy mother-craft returned fire but was already showing signs of strain at the vicious attack of the Ironclad, the strange hull turning a sickly mix of bright green and yellow.

"Reverse thrust, back us away, she's gonna' blow" Captain Kortegas called down the intercom

The massive cluster engines that had been driving the behemoth forward slowly went out as the thrust was redirected out of the four massive intakes on the sides of the spine, joining the graceful, forward curving wings to the rest of the ship. When they had reached a safe distance all the remaining fighters were recalled, landing back in the racks for return to the hangers of the Ironclad. When the upper racks (the middle ones) were full, they were retracted into the dreadnought, only three of the five racks had returned.

The hull a sickly colour, ruptures happening all over the ship, turrets popping like corn, the immense enemy cruiser tore itself apart with the force of detonating munitions, fuel and systems, the pieces swatting Diamond Flyers out of existence. A cheer went up from the crew on the bridge

"Helm, phase us back into Highspace, our destination is Earthfleet"

A/N

If you can't imagine what the ships look like, here are some pictures of what I based them on, Forge , warhammer 40,000

Phoenix fighter - Eldar Phoenix

Hydra clan Ray - Tau barracuda

Ironclad (imagine it with a longer body, more guns and greater - Eldar Vampire Hunter

Diamond Flyers/Rusty Kites

The Highspace Disruptor Probe