The main Zog fleet is in the Gliese 667 system, en route to the System’s C component to begin its search for the system’s inhabitants, which have attacked a Zog survey ship. Subsequent Zog scientific analysis deciphered the alien language and determined that the race called itself the Planter Empire. The aliens were amphibious bipeds, with large mouths and bulbous eyes. All three stars of the trinary system contained potentially habitable planets, so the fleet was going to have to check out all three to find the Planters. The C component is closest to the Zog entry point, the A component is close to the C component, and the B component is located on the far side of the A & C components from where the Zog fleet entered the system.
August 4, 2360
While en route to the C component of the Gliese 667 system, the Zog fleet comes under attack from five gunboat class craft. The attack is a surprise, apparently to everyone. The five enemy gunboats appeared at point blank range, in spite of the fact that the fleet’s sensors were all active. Three Glamatus class cruisers immediately opened fire with their torpedoes, destroying three of the five enemy ships.
The enemy ships recovered from their surprise at that point and launched seventeen missiles at one of the two Gomalus class jump cruisers in the fleet. The enemy missiles were too close to intercept with anti-missiles, leaving the cruiser’s CIWS as its only defense. Four missiles were swatted, but the rest slammed into the ship’s light shields, stripping them away and cratering its armor. Seconds later the rest of the Glamatus class ships fired their torpedoes, destroying the two remaining ships.
The action was short and devastating. All five enemy ships were destroyed, but not before one of the fleet’s three jump cruisers was damaged. All five enemy ships were destroyed quickly, but the question remained, how did the enemy get so close? Even if they were lying powered down, they shouldn’t have been able to penetrate to point blank range. Sergeant Abriabriashav has every senior sensor officer on all of the fleet’s ships arrested and ejected from their ship’s airlocks on general principles, and the fleet moves on.
[Author’s note: This was actually a result of Aurora shortening a time jump because of the detection of the enemy gunboats. I have no idea why Aurora didn’t put the new contacts at the limit of the Zog force’s detection range, instead of a point blank range, but it did. I decided to play it out, as it was only five gunboats, but I also resolved to back up the Stevefire.mdb file regularly during times when I had a main fleet in an enemy system, so that if this should happen in more important situations, like if the enemy’s main fleet suddenly appeared at point blank range, I could then go back to the saved DB and go forward in time more carefully.]
Four hours and forty five minutes later the fleet’s new senior sensor officers sat sweating over their consoles when contacts appeared at the far edge of their detection envelope. About two seconds later, on average, contact alarms were ringing throughout all of the fleet ships. The speed of the newly senior sensor officers in reporting the contacts gratified Sergeant Abriabriashav, more than justifying his earlier disciplinary action.
The Zog sensors revealed thirteen 6,200 ton ships, four 12,400 ton ships, and four 18,600 ton ships incoming, at 115 mkm’s. Within seconds the Zog sensors picked up active sensors from the alien fleet, and determined that the alien ships were moving at 3870 kps, about 25% faster than the Zog fleet. Sergeant Abriabriashav was concerned, although not overly. His fleet outnumbered the enemy, with twenty-seven ships compared to the enemy’s twenty-one enemy ships, although some of the enemy ships certainly out-massed anything he had available. Certainly the enemy ships were faster than the Zog fleet, but that was only because the fleet was limited to the speed of the fleet’s command ship. Once freed of the need to maintain the same speed of the command ship the rest of the fleet could either flee or close with the enemy as needed. Still confident, Sergeant Abriabriashav ordered the fleet to close on the alien fleet, while readying all missile defenses.
Approximately 100 minutes after first detecting the alien ships, missiles appeared on the Zog sensors. The alien missiles were grouped into waves of forty four each and were moving at 14,400 kps. The first wave of anti-missiles raced away from the Zog ships, moving to interpose themselves between the incoming missiles and the fleet. A second, and then a third wave appeared on the Zog sensors and the Zog ships began continuously launching anti-missiles to deal with the threat.
Zog anti-missile missiles began intercepting their targets and Sergeant Abriabriashav breathed a sigh of relief. Nearly every single Zog AMM hit their targets, which were much slower than the Zog interceptors. Sergeant Abriabriashav issued orders to the rest of the fleet to adjust their interception profiles, so that only one AMM would be launched per incoming missile.
The next two salvoes were intercepted without incident fairly far from the fleet, and Sergeant Abriabriashav was heartened by the obvious superiority of their anti-missile missiles. It was disturbing that the enemy’s missiles outranged his own, but given the 100% effectiveness of his AMM’s, it was now a question of who had more missiles. If the enemy had more offensive missiles than his fleet had AMM’s then the Zogs were in trouble, but given the fact that the Zog AMM’s were 20% the size of the incoming offensive missiles he was willing to bet that he had more than the enemy.
Just over six minutes later Sergeant Abriabriashav was starting to worry. His ships had intercepted twenty five missile salvoes and they showed no sign of stopping. While the Duldrus class area defense cruisers still had significant stocks of AMM’s left, the other ships were running out one by one, which was reducing the total number of AMM’s that his fleet could launch at once. So far they weren’t in trouble, but that would change if the salvoes kept coming.
One minute later the seemingly inexhaustible stream of incoming missiles stopped. The enemy had launched twenty nine salvoes, or 1,276 missiles at the Zog force. While the Zog ships were intercepting the incoming missiles, the enemy force had split into two groups, one of four ships and the second with seventeen. The group of four ships, all of which were the 18,600 ton class, were moving away from the Zog fleet at 3,870 kps, while the other group was still closing.
After some thought Sergeant Abriabriashav ordered his fleet to continue closing on the closest enemy group, which was still 62 mkm’s away. Before setting out, Sergeant Abriabriashav ordered the area defense cruisers to distribute some of their stocks of AMM’s to the other ships, to even out supplies of defensive missiles throughout the fleet.
Twenty-six minutes later a massive salvo of one hundred and twenty-three size three missiles appeared on the Zog sensors. Once again alarms blared and AMM’s raced away. These new, smaller missiles were headed towards the Zog ships at 19,200 kps, which meant that the Zog AMM’s would have a harder time hitting them, which was troubling given the number. The Zog defensive missile launchers went to rapid fire as the missile wave approached.
Realizing that they were in trouble, Sergeant Abriabriashav ordered the fleet to come to a halt and then to begin running back the way they came, in a desperate attempt to buy his defensive launchers enough time to get additional missiles into space. Fifteen seconds after the first wave appeared a second, similar sized wave appeared on the Zog sensors. Seconds later, eighty seven Zog AMM’s hit the first wave, killing sixty nine incoming missiles. That was a good interception rate, but things were still going to get tight.
The last missile of the first wave was destroyed just 192,000 kilometers from the fleet. The second wave was destroyed further away, but the Zog missile defenses were being tested. Ten salvoes composed of one hundred and twenty-three missiles each roared in, and by the time that the tenth wave appeared Zog ships were beginning to run out of AMM’s. Fortunately, the eleventh wave was composed of just sixty one missiles, indicating that the enemy’s supply of missiles wasn’t inexhaustible. Three smaller waves come in and were destroyed, and then silence reigned again. The Zog fleet had survived, although their supply of AMM’s was sorely depleted.
While there were those on his staff who pressed for a strategic withdrawal to resupply, Sergeant Abriabriashav was sure that the enemy had shot their bolt. He ordered the fleet to split up. The three slow jump cruisers were to turn back and join the troop transports, which were following safely behind the fleet, while the rest of the fleet, which was fast enough to overtake the enemy, raced ahead.
Unfortunately the enemy missile attacks weren’t over yet. Two minutes after the last missile in the thirteenth wave died, a new wave of one hundred missiles appeared. Once again Zog AMM’s raced away from the fleet’s ships. The Zog fleet endured five waves of missiles in this attack, and once again, not one missile got within range of the fleet’s point defense weapons.
Finally the fleet’s defensive launchers fell silent. Once again Sergeant Abriabriashav’s advisors argued for withdrawal, and this time Sergeant Abriabriashav listened to them and thought furiously. The enemy had so far launched almost 3200 offensive missiles at his fleet, and they had survived without a scratch. Five fleet ships were out of AMM’s, though, and four more were dangerously low, including several of the area defense cruisers.
Sergeant Abriabriashav was sorely tempted to retreat and reload with a fresh stock of AMM’s, but the thought of the enemy ships, which he was still convinced were out, or nearly out of missiles, being allowed to reload haunted him. Fresh resolve bolstered Abriabriashav. The enemy would pay for their attack! He ordered the fleet onwards, towards the enemy, who were now retreating. Eighteen minutes later a massive new wave of missiles appeared on the screens.
One hundred and twenty three missiles raced towards the fleet. Alarms blared and AMM’s raced away. Once again the fleet came about and ran from the incoming missiles. As before the incoming missiles were swatted from space, but the fleet was running critically short of AMM’s.
By then a second salvo was on the fleet’s screens, but this one had only ninety four missiles. The second wave was stopped far short of the fleet. No other missiles appeared. Still Sergeant Abriabriashav insisted on attacking the enemy. By now all of the enemy ships were running away, which Abriabriashav touted as evidence that they had expended their missiles and were fleeing now that they were unarmed. The crew of the flagship was now rebellious, but Sergeant Abriabriashav was an excellent orator and he filled them with pride in the Zog race and anger towards the enemy. The fleet sailed on.
Three minutes and thirty seconds later yet another wave of missiles appeared on the screens. This one was composed of forty four large missiles, the same as the very first missile attack. AMM’s flashed away from the Zog ships, racing to intercept the incoming missiles. These larger, slower missiles were easy meat for the Zog interceptors, and were destroyed far short of the fleet.
Thirty five seconds later a second group of missiles appeared, followed by a third, and then a fourth. It seemed the fleet was to be subjected to yet another interminable missile attack. As before the incomparable Zog AMM’s stopped every attacking missile far short of the fleet. But by the time the tenth wave appeared the last few AMM’s were launched and the Zog fleet’s magazines were run dry. At that point Sergeant Abriabriashav calmly ordered the fleet units to begin using offensive missiles against the incoming missiles. Zog offensive missiles were only forty percent of the size of the enemy’s attacking missiles, and were as fast as AMM’s.
When the twelfth wave appeared Sergeant Abriabriashav became concerned. The twelfth wave was composed of both size 3 and size 5 missiles, and it appeared as if several waves had run together. Offensive missiles doing duty as AMM’s flashed away, but depleted as the fleet was they would have problems stopping this wave. Concerned, Sergeant Abriabriashav released one of the newer destroyers with box launchers to assist in the defense. The destroyer immediately launched seven missiles, but at that point there were enough missiles in space to intercept the incoming missiles.
At that point things became confused. The fleet’s remaining missile launchers went to automatic firing, launching missiles as soon as they could. The strike cruiser’s torpedo launchers began engaging leakers, which were occurring more and more often. Finally, the ships equipped with CIWS found their last ditch defenses engaging missiles, and then the hits started. Sergeant Abriabriashav was forced to release first one, then the second box-launcher missile destroyer to the defense, and then the two cruisers as the battle went on.
Enemy fire was concentrating on the area defense cruisers, which was ironic as they no longer had any missiles. Later the enemy began spreading their fire to the other units in the fleet, and there were more and more leakers. Then, finally, the Zog fleet ran out of missiles with which to defend itself. At that point, with offensive missiles sleeting in all over, Sergeant Abriabriashav finally lost control of the fleet. Despite his orders to the contrary the fleet unraveled, with each of the fleet’s twenty four ships heading away from the enemy fleet on its own course. The Zog fleet pulled apart, each ship heading away on its own course at its maximum speed. Sergeant Abriabriashav’s hope died as the mutually supporting fire from the ADC’s gauss cannons and the strike cruiser’s torpedoes fell apart.
Sergeant Abriabriashav railed at his commanders for a short time, but he was smart, and knew that they wouldn’t listen as long as the missiles were raining down on them. Instead he bided his time, watching the central display like a predator.
The first hour after the fleet split up was a nightmare time, with missile attacks appearing randomly across the scattered fleet. The slower ships had been forced to watch helplessly as missiles ghosted across their displays, headed towards the faster ships that left them behind. Onboard the Glamatus class strike cruisers the terror had been nearly constant, as those ships didn’t have anti-missile sensors and thus they had no idea if missiles were incoming, not until they were upon them, at any rate. More than once the crews of the strike cruisers were forced to watch as missile salvoes would suddenly appear on their sensors at nearly point blank range, then race past them en route towards faster ships of the fleet. Ultimately several fleet ships suffered damage, some severe, but none of the ships were destroyed.
Two hours after the fleet split, and one hour after the last missile attack, Sergeant Abriabriashav began contacting the other ships of the fleet, either persuading, cajoling, or threatening their commanders to bring them into line. He found fertile ground for his attempts. The threat was past, and at this point most of the fleet had passed beyond the alien’s own detection range. The individual ships of the fleet had survived the immediate danger, and now their commanders and crews had to look towards the future. After disobeying the orders of their commander they couldn’t go home, not without any missiles at any rate, so when Sergeant Abriabriashav promised amnesty for all who fell into line they gratefully took the offer.
Abriabriashav ordered the depleted missile ships and the most heavily damaged units to retire to the warp point and to return home. The troop transports waiting at the warp point were to return to Delta Pavonis and await word from him or from home.
That left five area defense cruisers, eight strike cruisers, and Sergeant Abriabriashav’s own command ship, a bombardment cruiser. Those ships Abriabriashav ordered to reverse course and rendezvous en route to the enemy fleet.
Two hours and fifty minutes later the ships were at the assembly point. Sergeant Abriabriashav transferred to one of the strike cruisers, and then dispatched his depleted missile ship back to the warp point to join the rest. Once he had transferred to the strike cruiser, Sergeant Abriabriashav ordered his assembled ships into pursuit of the fleeing alien ships, now 97 mkm’s away on a direct course towards the system’s tertiary star. The enemy ships were running at 3870 kps, while Sergeant Abriabriashav’s ships were pursuing at 5517 kps. That meant that they were closing at 1647 kps, with a total time to interception of 16.3 hours. During that time the fleeing alien ships would travel approximately 225 mkm’s, which would put them at about the orbit of the tertiary star’s outermost gas giant when interception took place. That would be far from any possible base where the aliens could restock their magazines, so that was fine with Sergeant Abriabriashav.
Seven hours and thirty minutes into the pursuit a new group of alien ships appeared on the Zog screens headed directly towards them, unlike the ships which had attacked them, which were all headed away. Up to then Sergeant Abriabriashav had been somewhat concerned as three of the smallest alien ships had disappeared during the chaos of the fragmentation of the Zog fleet. Now this new group, which was composed of five 12,400 ton ships and two 6,200 ton ships, had appeared to threaten them. Sergeant Abriabriashav immediately contacted his ship commanders and bolstered their wavering morale by promising them all awards once they conquered the aliens. The commanders, who were still unsure of their futures once they returned to the home system, all took heart from Abriabriashav’s speech.
Two hours later the incoming alien ships joined the leading alien group fleeing from the Zog ships and came about to run with them. Four hours and twenty two minutes later the leading alien group, composed of four 18,600 ton ships, reached the orbit of the outermost gas giant and disappeared from the Zog sensors. Soon thereafter the seven ships that had joined the now disappeared ships turned back towards the Zog fleet. There were exclamations on the command deck of the flagship, but Sergeant Abriabriashav laughed and pointed with his fighting claw. The ships had disappeared through a La Grange point, presumably to the matching point in the secondary component of the system. The pursuit continued.
Ninety minutes later the incoming alien ships joined a group of enemy ships running from the Zog fleet and came about to run with them. At that point the leading alien ships were 18.3 mkm’s from the La Grange point, while the trailing group was just 5.7 mkm’s from the pursuing Zog force. The plotting computers were predicting an interception in fifty seven minutes, while the fleeing aliens were still approximately five mkm’s short of the La Grange point.
Fifty four minutes later the trailing enemy group was 443,000 kilometers from the Zog ships, and the gunnery crews were buttoned up, ready to engage the second the alien ships came within range. Suddenly alarms began sounding as a missile salvo was detected incoming from the main alien fleet. Initially there was consternation on the bridges of the Zog ships at the size of the salvo, which was composed of ninety two missiles, but then Sergeant Abriabriashav pointed out the fact that they were size one missiles, obviously the alien’s last ditch attempt to engage them with their defensive missiles.
The Zog gauss cannon crews hunched over their displays, reading themselves for the onslaught. The incoming missiles were small, fast, and maneuverable, and while individually they wouldn’t do much damage they could very well overwhelm the fleet with their pinprick damage.
When the second missile salvo appeared on the Zog screens Sergeant Abriabriashav ordered the fleet to come about and run, both to slow the rate of closure of the incoming missiles and to, perhaps, out run at least some of them. While the missiles were much faster than Zog ships they were AMM’s and thus likely to have little in the way of endurance.
By the time the Zog fleet came about and began running there were two additional salvoes of AMM’s on the screens and the first had closed to attack range. Thirty three AMM’s were swatted from space by massed gauss cannon fire and last ditch torpedo attacks, but that left the remaining fifty nine missiles to attack their target. They were targeted on one of the area defense cruisers, and if its armor had been intact the attack wouldn’t have caused any internal damage. Unfortunately, its armor wasn’t intact. Missile after missile hit the ship and eventually they penetrated its already damaged armor. Fifty eight of the fifty nine missiles hit the cruiser and finally one of the last to hit took out its gauss cannon turret, which was the sole reason the ship was with the fleet.
Sergeant Abriabriashav briefly considered dropping back to cover the damaged area defense cruiser, which had fallen beyond the range of the point defenses, but after a few seconds decided not to. The ship was now useless to him, and if it soaked up more incoming missiles then it would serve one final purpose for the Zog fleet.
Fifteen seconds later the second salvo reached attack range, this time closing two area defense cruisers, one of which was attacked by the first wave. Point defense fire knocked out twenty nine of the incoming missiles, leaving the rest to attack the hapless cruiser. The already damaged cruiser took additional damage to its drives, magazines, and fuel storage and began falling away from the fleet. The second cruiser suffered no internal damage, but its armor was breached in several places.
Fifteen seconds later the third salvo arrived to be met with determined point defense fire. Thirty nine incoming missiles died, but the rest slammed into the same area defense cruiser attacked by the last salvo. This time the luckless ship took serious internal damage, including damage to its drives, and began falling behind.
The same area defense cruiser was attacked by a portion of the fourth wave as well. The ship suffered additional damage, falling even further behind. The rest of the missiles raced past the damaged cruisers and attacked another area defense cruiser. Some of the missiles were shot down short of their target, but the rest slammed into the ship knocking down its shields and causing some armor damage.
In the aftermath of the forth attack Sergeant Abriabriashav settled back to consider the situation. No additional missiles were on the screens, but the enemy almost certainly had more. Two of his area defense cruisers had suffered significant damage and would have to retreat, leaving him with three ADC’s and only 60% of the missile defense he had had to begin with. After some thought he decided to try again to attack the trailing group. The aliens had obviously targeted the largest ships in his group, not knowing that the ships they should be concerned about were the smaller strike cruisers. Once again the Zog fleet came about and went after the fleeing alien ships.
Seven minutes and thirty seconds later the Zog ships were once again closing on the enemy, which was now 440,000 kilometers away. The Zog ships were so close they could almost target the aliens. Almost. Once again alarms began screaming throughout the fleet as ninety two missiles appeared on their screens. Sergeant Abriabriashav ordered them forward, towards the enemy.
Sergeant Abriabriashav’s commanders objected. The fleet would be pounded to scrap, they argued. Better to retreat with the fleet largely intact, and try again, they argued. Abriabriashav wasn’t about to lose his nerve now, though. Not only wasn’t it in him, but he too was thinking of the aftermath of this battle. He had failed in his mission, and lost control of his fleet while failing. To have any hope of salvaging his position he had to show some success. So this time they didn’t turn back. The other commanders, fearing their fates at the hands of the Mental Hygiene Police already, decided to try and redeem themselves, so they accompanied Abriabriashav in his heedless plunge towards the enemy fleet.
The Zog fleet’s remaining active defenses took out twenty seven incoming AMM’s before they broke through to slam into one of the area defense cruisers. The cruiser took light internal damage and continued on. At this point the trailing group of enemy ships, composed of three 12,400 ton ships, was only 360,000 kilometers ahead of the Zog ships.
The second wave of AMM’s lost only sixteen missiles to the active defenses. The salvo was targeted on two ADC’s, one of which was the same one attacked by the first salvo. The already damaged ADC took heavy damage this time, and lost its point defense fire control and several engines, forcing it to fall out of formation. Sergeant Abriabriashav ordered it to return to the warp point and rejoin the missile ships. The remaining missiles attacked a second ADC but caused no internal damage.
The third wave of AMM’s lost twenty one missiles to Zog active defenses, and then attacked the same ADC that had weathered the second salvo’s attack without damage. The ship took some damage, but remained with the fleet, which was now 330,000 kilometers from its target.
The fourth wave lost only eight missiles to the disintegrating Zog active defenses, and then attacked two ADC’s, one of which was the same one attacked by the third wave. The already damaged cruiser took heavy internal damage and lost some engines along with its gauss cannon turret. The other cruiser took only light internal damage. Sergeant Abriabriashav dispatched the slowed ship back towards the warp point.
The Zog fleet only intercepted nine incoming missiles from the fifth wave, and the rest slammed into the last ADC with the fleet. The ship took heavy damage to its engine compartment and was forced to turn back, leaving the eight strike cruisers on their own.
Eight missiles from the sixth wave attacked one of the Zog strike cruisers, causing negligible damage to its armor, while the rest raced past the strike cruisers towards the limping ADC’s. At this point Sergeant Abriabriashav ordered the strike cruiser’s torpedo launchers to be withdrawn from point defense duties, as they hadn’t hit any of the tiny AMM’s anyway, and the enemy fleet was almost in range. The remaining missiles from the sixth wave slammed into the first ADC to be attacked, which had turned and was retreating. The missiles overwhelmed the already damaged ship, breaking its back and leaving the hulk drifting, powerless.
The seventh wave also split its targeting. Approximately half attacked a strike cruiser, causing light internal damage, while the rest raced towards the trailing ADC. The remaining missiles slammed into the trailing ADC and ripped it apart. The alien ships were now only fifty thousand kilometers beyond the Zog torpedo range.
The missiles in the eighth wave attacked one of the strike cruisers in the leading group, but most raced past the strike cruiser group to run down the last remaining ADC. Suddenly, the incoming missile salvoes disappeared from the plot. At first Sergeant Abriabriashav thought that they had been given a reprieve, but then he realized that the last ADC had lost its anti-missile sensor, so the Zog ships were now blind to the incoming missiles. After a few seconds Sergeant Abriabriashav waved his battle claw in resignation. It wasn’t like they could do anything with the information anyway.
Missiles sleeted in as if from nowhere. The last ADC trailing the fleet was finally destroyed as it limped away, and a strike cruiser began falling behind, but finally, finally, the fleet was in range! Loud clicks sounded throughout the strike cruisers as the crews clacked their battle claws together in glee as the torpedoes raced away. Only fourteen torpedoes hit the target, but it was the first time the Zog fleet had done damage to the enemy. In the meantime, as the Zog torpedoes launched their attack, AMM’s rained down on two Zog cruisers, including Sergeant Abriabriashav’s command ship. He didn’t care though, as they had finally gotten within range. The alien ships was streaming atmosphere, and they had detected at least one secondary explosion.
That was when it happened. The next missile wave concentrated completely on Sergeant Abriabriashav’s command ship and in one terrible instant the bridge was destroyed and Sergeant Abriabriashav was killed. If it was up to the other commanders they would have turned back, but the crews had the sent of blood and refused.
The next torpedo salvo went out, divided between two alien ships. The already damaged ship was hit by five more torpedoes, further damaging it. The undamaged ship was hit by twelve torpedoes, causing internal damage. The next torpedo salvo went out, divided between the two targets, doing significant internal damage to both alien ships. In the meantime, the trailing strike cruiser had been destroyed, and additional damage was done to other strike cruisers. The fleet was wearing away.
One minute later both enemy ships were reduced to wreckage and the remaining Zog ships turned their attentions to the last remaining enemy ship in range. During that time the Zog fleet had been reduced to four intact strike cruisers. Forty five seconds later the last enemy ship in the trailing group was gone, and the Zog force was reduced to five strike cruisers, several of which were damaged.
With their immediate enemy gone, the Zog crews came to their senses and decided to withdraw. In the end, one lone, heavily damaged strike cruiser managed to get away from the hail of tiny missiles.
The Zog force lost three 8,000 ton area defense cruisers and seven 6,650 ton strike cruisers, in exchange for three 12,400 ton enemy ships and an uncountable number (certainly in excess of a thousand) of anti-missile missiles. In addition, Sergeant Abriabriashav lost his life in the valiant attack.
One by one the alien ships disappeared through the La Grange point as the remaining Zog ships limped back towards the warp point at their various best speeds.
