Month 143 - Part II
Continued from Part I.
The six ASR light cruisers fired as one, launching one hundred and eight sprint missiles into the mass of attacking fighters. Point defense lasers and missiles speared out as well, and the toll was tremendous. Nearly half of the attacking fighters died in seconds. Cheers went up on the bridge as the fighters began firing their ordnance into the ASR ships. The first fighters to fire gutted a destroyer that was turning on a fighter group, but then a trio of ASR destroyers launched on three fighter groups lining up on a second destroyer, destroying sixteen of the Axon attack craft.
The battle was over in seconds. Three ASR destroyers were crippled, shedding armor plate and streaming atmosphere, but the entire fighter force was gone. Korak couldn’t believe what his eyes were telling him.
The bridge was silent for most of a minute, then, finally, the Intelligence Officer spoke. “Sir, I’ve matched the demonstrated performance profiles of the ASR ships with known ship classes. Disregarding the actual signatures, it appears we are facing six Foche class battle cruisers and fifteen scorpion class cruisers.”
The words fell on a bridge almost completely silent. Korak’s eyes slowly closed. “Those are the ASR’s premier anti-fighter cruisers, are they not? Perhaps you could explain your complete failure to identify them prior to the destruction of our fighter force?”
The officer grew agitated; finally aware of the precipice he stood upon. “Eminence, the ASR ships display emission profiles and drive fields completely consistent with the original classification. Even now the tactical computer wants to reclassify them back to the original classification in spite of our additional knowledge. I can only speculate that this is another manifestation of the ASR’s cloaking device.”
Even as he spoke the words, fate intervened. The sensor officer, who had been concerned about his own welfare, lest he be too closely identified with the unfortunate intelligence officer, now found something to divert himself from the angry Bishop. “Detection alert! Cloaked units detected by fighter screen, closing from astern, range…sixteen light seconds.”
Bishop Korak spun in his chair. “Scan the area and identify the intruders!”
“Scanning now…the enemy units are launching fighters. Two hundred and twenty eight fighters launched, cloaked units are retreating. Fighter swarm is inbound, closing at .0916 percent light speed.”
Korak thought quickly. His corvettes could make .066 percent of light speed at maximum. The enemy fighters would chase his force down eventually, and when they did his fighter screen would not be able to hold them back. Still… “All units are to come to course 170 and accelerate to maximum speed.” The corvettes began moving on a tangent away from both the fighters behind them and the cruisers in front of them. Korak watched the cruisers, curious if they would give pursuit. They were too slow to catch him, but if they left the warp point his corvettes might be able to slip through.
The ASR cruisers did not leave the warp point, apparently content to watch their fighters chase down the Axon group. For the next six minutes the ASR fighters chased the fleeing Axon force. Finally, with their fate obvious, the Axon corvettes and fighters turned as one and plunged into the oncoming ASR fighter group. The standard Axon carriers didn’t have any defenses, nothing they could fire at the ASR fighters, but they could confuse the situation for a time, giving the command corvettes and their remaining fighters time to strike back. The ASR fighters, all more agile than the lower-tech Axon fighters, were modulating their drive fields to throw off the Axon targeting systems. The Axon fighters fell quickly. In the melee the leading groups of Axon fighters took out forty three ASR fighters, but the remaining Axon fighters were wiped out before they could fire. The corvette-carriers didn’t last much longer. With their fighters gone, no weapons, and their command units picked off first, the Axon corvettes tried scattering, but the ASR fighters tracked every one down. Not one tried to surrender and all were destroyed by the ASR fighter group. The Axon Retribution Force was no more. Bishop Korak did not survive the destruction of his flagship.
In the aftermath of the battle, Admiral Rondallas dispatched his damaged cruisers back to Le Harve, accompanied by three empty carriers, and the entire group of non-cloak equipped ships. They had proven to be a liability, and it was time for them to be refitted.
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Month 143, Week 1, Xeon system, warp point to the Golan system
Normally when ships from different nations worked closely together their cooperation was the result of lengthy negotiations by high-level political and military personnel from all of the nations involved. These negotiations typically were intended to resolve any potential difficulties before they happened. Important issues like relative capabilities, strengths and weaknesses, goals, and a combined command structure would all be discussed and worked out before the first ship was committed to the campaign. Unfortunately for the Xeon State, the Alliance, and the ASR, there wasn’t enough time for that type of negotiation to take place. All three nations had been forced to rush their forces into place and hope for the best.
The result of this lack of preparation could be seen clearly at the warp point from the Xeon system to the Eater-occupied colony system of Golan. The Xeon fleet and fortifications were clustered in close to the warp point, in keeping with the Xeon tactical doctrine. The ASR and Alliance fleets were arrayed on opposite sides of the warp point from each other, in positions that ranged from four to ten light seconds from the warp point. The simple fact was that the Alliance and the ASR didn’t really trust each other. They didn’t particularly distrust each other either, but neither side was willing to sit within weapons range of warships from a government that they knew little about.
The Xeon and the Alliance knew more than a little about their respective capabilities, of course. It wasn’t that long ago that the Xeon had launched an abortive war against the Alliance. They had lost a significant portion of their fleet as a result, and it had given them a lively respect for the Alliance Navy. The ASR was an unknown to both the Alliance and the Xeon, though. Because of the trade in between Xeon and the ASR it was clear to both that the ASR held a significant tech advantage, but neither side was entirely sure what that meant and the Alliance had only recently found out about the ASR.
The distrust, lack of knowledge, and lack of a unified command structure made coordinating the defense of the warp point difficult but not impossible. The three commanders met every day to discuss the situation and to update each other on plans and intentions, and the fact that all three commanders were human helped quite a bit. Still and all, it was a very frustrating situation for Fleet Commander Silvestri, the ASR’s senior commander in Xeon space. He wanted to move into Golan space and begin operations against the Eaters, using his cloaked ships to ambush detached Eater ships to slow their survey effort and delay their inevitable discovery of the warp point to Xeon. The Alliance commander absolutely refused to consider any move into Golan, even by foreign ships. She had plainly written off the Xeon colony system, and just as plainly considered their attempt to hold the warp point to be doomed. Silvestri had grown concerned about her blatant defeatism after their first few meetings, until he realized two things. The first was that she reserved her doom and gloom attitude for their meetings, in front of her own people she was as confident as anyone could wish for. The second was that she fully intended to fight, even to die, here at the warp point. It was just that she didn’t think that they could stop the Eaters, no matter what they did. That was why she opposed the mission into Golan, she felt that it was doomed and at worst would lead the Eaters back to the warp point.
The Xeon admiral was obviously torn about Silvestri’s wish to enter Golan and engage the Eaters. The Xeon contact force was still trapped in Golan, loitering sixty or so light seconds from the warp point, closely pursued by an Eater force that quite obviously was hoping that they would reveal the warp point. The Xeon contact group was already suffering from maintenance failures, and if something weren’t done soon they would soon be out of luck. Still, even though the Xeon admiral wanted to rescue the contact group, he wasn’t willing to risk revealing the warp point to the home system to do it.
The fact that Silvestri’s ships were equipped with cloaking technology didn’t enter into the equation, because neither the Xeon nor the Alliance commanders knew anything about the ASR’s cloaking technology. Standing regulations specifically prohibited Fleet Commander Silvestri from revealing the technology to the Xeon or the Alliance, and at least so far he had been unable to obtain permission from the diplomatic mission on Xeon Prime. And without knowledge of the cloak the other commanders at the warp point had very good reasons for opposing any venture into the Golan system. Premature revelation of the warp point would be disastrous for everyone.
Silvestri’s decision to post a pair of gunboats with a long-range sensor packs on the far side of the warp point had angered both of the other commanders, but in the end they had acknowledged the utility of having eyes on the far side. The data on the Eater operations in Golan had been invaluable, as had the information passed on when communications were re-established with the Xeon contact group. It was that data, though, that had ultimately caused Fleet Commander Silvestri to decide to violate standing orders and reveal the ASR’s technological edge to the Xeon and Alliance commanders. His staff’s latest evaluation, based on observed Eater operations, was that the Eaters had likely already completed a rough survey of the Golan system, and that they would be able to complete a detailed survey as soon as the end of this month. If the evaluation was correct, then it would come down to a race between the Eater fleet in the Golan system and the ASR’s reinforcements, some of which were due to enter the Xeon system by the end of the month. Silvestri had no wish to lose that race, thus his desire to move against the Eater survey units, some of which were close enough to the warp point to be detected by the gunboat pickets. Just a small delay, even a few weeks, would be enough to allow the ASR to reinforce Silvestri’s force significantly.
After considering the situation, Silvestri had decided to give the Xeon and the Alliance a demonstration of his fleet’s capability. The other two commanders were so dead-set against going into Golan that just telling them about the cloaking device would mean weeks of study and worrying before they would allow him to begin operations in Golan. Something more dramatic was needed. Because of his plans, he was actually looking forward to his meeting with the other commanders. The last few meetings had been dull, almost morose affairs as they continuously reviewed the apparently overwhelming strength of the Eater fleet. That was about to change.
Fleet Commander Silvestri was used to the sights as his cutter docked with the Xeon flagship, the superdreadnought Victory, which was the site of today’s meeting, and he went through the routines of entering the Xeon ship without much thought. Once he was in the briefing room with his fellow commanders, though, he broke the routine by requesting a holo display of the area surrounding the warp point. As soon as he had it set up, with all three fleets on the display, he turned to Admiral Balusek, the Xeon commander, and Group Leader Burke, the Alliance commander. “Admiral Balusek, with your permission, I’d like to begin this meeting slightly differently. I have received permission from my commanding officer to reveal some of our technology, technology which I believe can make a difference in the Golan system and delay the Eaters until our main forces can arrive. With your permission?”
Admiral Balusek looked pensive, while Group Leader Burke looked intrigued. Finally, after a few seconds, Admiral Balusek nodded. “You make your demonstration.”
Admiral Silvestri crossed to the conference room’s display unit, and called up a tactical display. The unit’s controls were very similar to those used by the Republic, which wasn’t too surprising given that technology base of both the Republic and the Xeon descended from the First Empire. “May I have permission to contact my flagship?”
Admiral Balusek crossed the room to stand next to Admiral Silvestri and activated the comm. unit on the conference table. “Establish contact with the Crusader. When contact is established, route it here.”
They all waited in silence for a few seconds while contact was established. When the rating confirmed a two-way contact was open, Admiral Silvestri said… “All units are to implement order thirty six.”
The other two admirals looked at each other and then at the tac display. For a few seconds nothing changed, then, suddenly, the icons representing the ASR fleet began disappearing, leaving only ghost markers indicating a lost contact.
Admiral Silvestri stood back with a pleased look on his face while the other two admirals looked first at each other and then at the tac display. Admiral Balusek punched the communicator, bringing up his bridge on the wall monitor. “Sensors, where did the ASR fleet go?”
The Victory’s bridge was lit by flashing lights as the duty officer had called for action stations when the entire ASR fleet disappeared from his sensors. The sensor officer was crouched over his console, frantically toggling his display. “I don’t know sir! One second they were there and now they aren’t!”
Admiral Balusek frowned, staring at Admiral Silvestri, who was still smiling as he stood in the corner of the room. “What is the current range to the ASR fleet, as of our last contact?”
The sensor officer steadied, now that he was receiving orders. “Sir, as of our last contact the ASR fleet was clustered ten light seconds away, at the position marked on the tac display.”
Balusek turned towards the display, his mind racing. The ASR fleet was too close to be undetectable merely by dropping its drive fields. This was something else. “Sensors, scan the area of space that contained the ASR ships. Use every sensor we have and flood that area with energy. I want to know what is there.”
“Yes sir. Scanning now. Wait…wait. Scan complete, no ships detected.”
Admiral Balusek turned away, towards Admiral Silvestri. “This is incredible! With this, you may be able to defeat the Eaters!”
“That was my point, Admiral. It isn’t perfect though…”
Before the ASR admiral could finish the Victory’s sensor officer shouted…”Sir, we have several contacts, indistinct, bearing 080 and retreating. The contact is now 1.5 light seconds from the original location of the ASR fleet.”
“Could you engage them with missiles at the current contact strength?”
“No sir. The contacts are too weak, even if we were in range. Now that I’ve located them, though, I could probably refine my contact to the point that we could target them. The contacts are getting weaker as they retreat, though. I’m not sure I’ll be able to maintain contact for much longer.”
“Very well.” Admiral Balusek turned towards Admiral Silvestri and shook his hand. “You’ve convinced me. We could spot you, but only at close range, and only because we were looking. I’d hate to think about what you could do with that running around loose in a system.” Having said it, Admiral Balusek suddenly looked concerned as he realized that it was entirely possible that cloaked ASR forces could be running around loose in his system.
Admiral Silvestri shook his head, correctly interpreting the look of consternation on the other admiral’s face. “You have nothing to worry about. We are focused on our mutual enemies. There are no cloaked forces in your system, you have my word.” Admiral Silvestri looked across the room at Group Leader Burke, who had, until now, remained silent. “Group Leader?”
Slowly, Group Leader Burke began to smile. It was a transformation that transformed her face. “You are the ones we have hoped for. You can beat back the Eaters. With this technology, we could stop them cold. We could…” She stopped, momentarily at a loss for words. Finally she straightened and saluted Admiral Silvestri. “You can give our worlds hope again, Admiral. Now let’s stop the Eaters here, once and for all.”
The planning went rapidly after that. Admiral Silvestri reassured the other commanders that heavy ASR reinforcements were en route, with a significant force due by the end of this month, therefore, even a minor delay in the Eater’s schedule would be sufficient to destroy the Eaters’ ability to enter the Xeon system.
By the end of Day 4 they had developed a plan. The bulk of the ASR force, forty five carriers of various types, supported by forty cruisers, entered the Golan system under cloak. They then transmitted orders to the twelve Xeon warships still in the system, ordering them to make a run towards the inner system. The second a response from the Eaters was detected, the Xeon force was to turn away and run. Obediently, the Xeon force turned towards the inner system.
The plan went off without a hitch. The Eaters were very predictable. Twelve battlecruisers and twelve destroyers broke off from the main Eater force, which was approaching the Xeon colony, and pursued the Xeon force. The two groups of ships moved away from the inner system. In the meantime, the ASR force had maneuvered in front of the fleeing Xeon force. Once they had moved into position, the ASR force dropped its drive fields, secure in the knowledge that the fleeing Xeon ships would draw the Eaters right to them. Several days passed. The Eaters appeared to be content to follow the Xeon ships as long as they ran. In reality, of course, the Eaters hoped that they could track the Xeon to their warp point. In the meantime the Eater force, a massive group of warships built around ninety three monitors, reached orbit over the Xeon colony and began launching missiles at the Xeon settlements. Shortly thereafter, the Eater force began landing colonists.
On Day 10 the Eater force was approaching the hidden ASR force. Admiral Silvestri watched as the Eater force approached, blindly following the fleeing Xeon ships. Admiral Silvestri had been somewhat concerned that the Eaters might take an evasive course as they followed, but, as always, the Eaters were arrogant in their power. The Xeon force was running just ten light seconds ahead of the Eaters, and the Eater force had the Xeons firmly in their sights. Admiral Silvestri watched as the range marker dropped, and when it reached fifteen light seconds he gestured at his flag captain, who nodded and gave his orders. All across the ASR fleet the ships activated their drive fields.
The Eater force stumbled to a halt, allowing the Xeon fleet to open the range. The fleet mind realized immediately what had happened. The Chaos species had drawn his fleet into range of a drive-field down force hidden in advance of their venture into the inner system. The enemy force included a significant number of small craft carriers, therefore their response was clear. The Eater force recovered from its surprise quickly, and moved into the Eaters’ trademark hedgehog formation. As they moved, the six battlecruiser-carriers launched two hundred and seventy AFSC’s, which moved into the center of the hedgehog formation, ready to respond in any direction. In the meantime the ASR formation had closed the range to twelve light seconds, at which time they launched eight hundred and eighty eight fighters and three hundred and twelve gunboats. The Eater fleet mind saw the death of its detached force, but that was of little import. The detached units were an infinitesimal portion of its strength, nothing more.
Proceeding according to Admiral Silvestri’s plan, the massive ASR fighter force closed on the Eater ships while the gunboats remained behind, covering the defenseless carriers. Two minutes later the ASR fighters closed to point blank range. Three quarters of the ASR fighter force was composed of older second generation fighters, with one quarter composed of the latest third gen fighters. The third gen fighters race straight towards the ASFC’s and destroy one hundred and eighty in one pass. The ASFC’s refuse to be drawn into a dogfight with the ASR F3’s, and instead moved to stop the ASR F2’s which were lining up on the lumbering battlecruisers. The ASFC’s destroed thirty five F2’s before they could fire, and the Eater cruisers destroyed another twenty-three, but the remaining ASR fighters blasted the entire Eater force into splinters in seconds.
Their job completed the ASR fighters raced away, leaving the AFSC’s behind. After a few seconds of confusion the AFSC’s turned towards the ASR fleet and began closing, apparently intent on ramming. All ninety remaining AFSC’s were destroyed short of the ASR fleet by massed AFM attacks from the ASR cruisers.
Admiral Silvestri grinned as cheers broke out on the flag bridge of the Crusader. After a few seconds he called out to his sensor officer. “Are the other contacts still in range?”
“Yes sir! Still at their established positions. Except for the four known contacts, no other Eater ships within detection range.”
“Very well, recover the fighter wings and gunboats. Launch long range patrols as soon as possible.” Settling into his command station he keyed his communicator. “Groups one through four will depart as planned. Good luck.”
The ASR fighters returned to their carriers as several ASR cruisers began transferring supplies to the Xeon ships, where hungry crews fell upon the food with joy. Shortly after recovering their fighters the ASR fleet began to break apart. Four groups, each composed of a CVL leading three cruisers, and two destroyers, and six CVE’s, slipped away under cloak, headed towards the four Eater contacts hanging forty eight to sixty light minutes away, presumably watching the battle with their long-range sensors. Unknown to the Eaters each of these contacts had a shadow, a cloaked ASR destroyer that had crept close enough to identify the four as standard model Eater survey cruisers.
With the four groups on their way the combined ASR/Xeon fleet made its way out-system. As Admiral Silvestri knew that the Eaters were watching they weren’t headed anywhere in particular, merely away from the Eater force in the inner system and definitely not towards the warp point back to Xeon. One day later the four Eater survey ships stopped being a problem when the cloaked attack groups ambushed and destroyed them, suffering no loses of their own. His skies clear of the enemy, Admiral Silvestri ordered his fleet back to Xeon, escorting the Xeon contact force back home.
The Xeon’s welcomed their contact force back home with fireworks launched from the ships guarding the warp point, and the praise of the two admirals for Admiral Silvestri was bounteous. Still, all three knew that the real challenge that faced them was the massive Eater force that waited Golan.
By the end of the month a large ASR force had arrived to bolster Admiral Silvestri’s force. With the arrival of reinforcements the ASR fleet under Admiral Silvestri was now comprised of the following units:
Battle Group #63, Sixth Fleet, Admiral Silvestri commanding (Overall command, Xeon Front)
3xGalaxy Class ML’s, 3xPeace class SD’s, 6xBisson class CV’s, 12xFoche class BCAA’s, 22xGloire class BCR’s, 15xScorpion class CAA, 22xSword class DD’s, 252xfighters, 156x Gunboats
Battle Group #63.1, Sixth Fleet, Admiral Alice Gordon
13xBisson class CV’s, 6xFletcher class CVL’s, 24xOlympus Mons class CVE’s, 6xScorpion class CAA’s, 816xFighter, 238xGunboats
Note: All ASR ships assigned to this front are modernized and equipped with cloaking devices.
Reinforcements as of the end of Month 143):
ETA to Xeon system: 2 weeks
12xGalaxy class ML’s, 6xBisson class CV’s, 3xScorpion class CAA’s, 6xSword class DD’s, 216xFighters, 228xGBP’s
Note: This group was dispatched from Cannes Fleet Base and is crewed largely by Gorandans. This is a modern force, although much of it is composed of new construction and is very green.
ETA to Xeon system 4 weeks
6xPeace class SDR’s, 3xScorpion class CAA’s, 6xSword class DD’s, 9xOlympus Mons class CVE’s, 12xScout class CTS, 52xFighters, 24xGBP
Note: This force was dispatched from the Gorandan Home World and is composed of modern units.
ETA to Xeon system: 6 weeks
6xGalaxy class ML’s, 3xBisson class CV’s, 6xGloire class BCR’s, 3xScorpion class CAA, 12xSword class DD’s, 108xFighters, 99xGBP’s
Note: This group was dispatched from Marathon Station in the Republican Member State, and is a mixed force of modern units and pre-refit designs.
ETA to Xeon system: 3 months
Confederation Grand Fleet, Admiral Louise Gerard commanding
18xGalaxy class ML’s, 3xBisson class CV’s, 3xFletcher class CVL’s, 10xTharsis Montes class CVS, 3xSword class DD’s, 18xOlympus Mons class CVE’s, 484xFighters, 362xGBP’s
Note: This is a modern force, and represents the cream of the Confederation Member State’s navy.
ETA to Xeon system: 3.5 months
D’nax Main Fleet, commanding officer
12xGalaxy class ML’s, 3xBisson class CV’s, 3xFoche class BCAA’s, 3xScorpion class CAA’s, 10xOlympus Mons class CVE’s, 228xFighters, 186xGBP’s
Note: This force is composed of modern units dispatched from the D’nax homeworld.
ETA to Xeon system: 4 months
Battle Group #62, Sixth Fleet, Area Marshal Gwynxa
12xGalaxy class ML’s, 13xXanthe Terra class BBA’s, 10xEssex class BBA, 1xSyria Planum class CVB, 11xBisson class CV, 4xFoche class BCAA, 3xGloire class BCR, 9xScorpion class CAA, 5xTharsis Montes class CVS, 2xNorth Carolina class CLS, 9xSword class DD, 6xRichelieu class DD, 11xScout class CTS, 624xFighters, 423xGBP’s
Note: This force is a mixed group of modern cloaking units and older pre-refit designs rushed to the Antaran front.
Several other forces are en route, however, they are six to twelve months away.
Unfortunately, scouts on the far side of the warp point in Golan confirmed that the Eaters had received reinforcements as well. Contacts had spread across the system in a pattern consistent with an exploration group composed of EX’s. The Eaters had been delayed, but not for long.
