On November 21st Jovian deep space tracking stations on Ganymede detected ten strength-1 detonations on the outer edge of the asteroid belt in the same location as two Chinese Yinchuan class cruisers. A new Russian class, the Udaloy, was five million kilometres away from the attack. As far as Jovian Naval Intelligence was aware the Chinese ships had no missiles remaining so they were helpless against any serious attack. Little was known about the Udaloy apart from its speed of 4736 km/s and its active sensor emissions, which were weaker than a normal warship. JNI suspected the Udaloy was some form of fast attack craft. It appeared the Sino-Russian war was not yet over. Three further salvos of the same strength struck at ten minute intervals then the Russian ship headed for home. The hypothesis that the Udaloy was a FAC was boosted by the slow fire rate and the small number of missiles fired. In fact. JNI believed there may have been one than one ship in the Russian formation even though only one active sensor was detected. The Chinese ships were struck again at intervals of five or six days. The Yinchuans suffered engine damage which, based on changes in speed, they appeared to repair from their own resources. The Houxin was not so lucky and was destroyed on December 18th during the fifth Russian attack.
In mid-December the first pair of construction brigades was unloaded at the Sparta colony in Alpha Centauri. They began work in the alien city, attempting to recover intact installations. The first success was to restore life support to a section of the city, enabling additional living space for the colony. Shortly thereafter a terraforming installation was recovered and put to work removing ammonia from the atmosphere.
A few days later, the battered Martian Union fleet launched a new attack on the home world of the Skye Enclave. The Chacal class battlecruiser attempted a solo raid, moving much closer than in the past, presumably because the Union had run out of long-range missiles. Unfortunately for the Chacal that brought it within range of the home world’s defences. While the Chacal successfully launched approximately one hundred and twenty missiles, all were destroyed by anti-missiles. Minutes later the Chacal suffered a devastating counter-attack, suffering more than five hundred strength-1 hits before exploding. The offensive potential of the Martian Union had been severely diminished during recent battles and it was not likely to pose a serious threat to the Enclave in the near future.
By early January, Aeolus had salvaged five Chinese and Russian wrecks. While a number of components were recovered the technology behind those components was generally in line with Jovian standards. Apart from a small amount of information gained on laser weaponry and electronic counter-measures, the salvage produced minerals rather than valuable knowledge. Therefore Aeolus was dispatched to Alpha Centauri to begin salvage of the Enclave and Secundus wrecks near Sparta.
Hyperion and Selene completed a gravitational survey of Erebos on February 3rd 2202. No new jump points were found. This meant that the three systems of Barnard’s Star, Altair and Erebos, the second of which contained the Athens colony, formed a dead-end chain. Jovian forces had already completed gravitational surveys of Proxima and Wolf 359, both adjacent to Sol, and investigated a total of eight systems beyond those. As one Jovian ship was lost in FL Virginis and none of the other seven systems held anything of significant value, a decision had been made to abandon any further exploration beyond Proxima or Wolf 359, especially as both lay beyond jump points within the inner Sol system. Typhon was also off-limits due to the presence of the Zoltan Empire and now so was Barnard’s Star, which left only three of the seven systems adjacent to Sol as potential expansion routes. Sirius and Luhman 16 had yet to be surveyed so the route through Alpha Centauri was now the focus of Jovian expansion plans. Two adjacent systems had been discovered, Lalande and Hesperus, and a gravitational survey was underway in the latter, where several Skye Enclave survey ships were also present. On March 11th the survey of Hesperus was completed. This too was a dead-end, leaving Lalande as the only route out of Alpha Centauri.
In March and April 2202 the United Mercurian Emirates took a serious interest in Alpha Centauri. Several UME warships entered the system, passed through the Alpha Centauri-B solar system and headed straight for the Enclave home world. A pair of 19,100 ton Zarqa class cruisers entered orbit of Alpha Centauri-A III with no evidence of combat. While this appeared to be a peaceful visit by the Mercurians, the Enclave had not shown a great deal of tolerance towards previous diplomatic envoys.
With the available routes out of Sol gradually being reduced, Jovian survey ships moved into Luhman 16. On April 30th the gravitational survey ship Helios transited a newly discovered jump point in that system and entered EZ Aquarii, a trinary system of three red dwarves with a total of six planets and more than four hundred asteroids. None of the planets were terraforming candidates.
On May 26th Jovian deep space tracking stations on Ganymede detected nine strength-5 detonations and three strength-1 energy weapon impacts in the outer Sol system, approximately six hundred and fifty million kilometres from the Typhon jump point and eight hundred million kilometres from Uranus. The target appeared to be a Han class construction ship, originally Chinese but now under Russian control. The only sensor contacts within half a billion kilometres were three ships of the Zoltan Empire that had recently entered Sol via the Typhon jump point. The Zoltan Empire was known to be at war with the Republic of India, although no combat had been detected since the initial Indian attack on a Zoltan construction ship, but there was no prior record of any incident with the Russian Federation.
Seven more detonations followed a minute later and the thermal signature of the Russian ship dropped by seventeen percent. The third salvo destroyed the construction ship. Whatever the reason for the sudden outbreak of hostilities, the Zoltan Empire was now at war with the Russian Federation. Two of the three Zoltan ships in Sol, a Beshaba and a Hades, were detected due to both their thermal signature and active sensor emissions while the third, a Tarterus class, was visible only via its EM emissions. All three had been detected previously by Jovian active sensors. The Beshaba and Hades were both 18,600 tons while the Tarterus was 9300 tons. The Russian Federation was very short of warships. Two 7750 ton Slava class ships were in Earth orbit, the capabilities of which were unknown, and a pair of Udaloy class FACs were hunting Chinese ships between the orbit of Uranus and Neptune on the far side of the system from the Typhon jump point. Five Skory class ships had also been constructed but JNI believed these were unarmed fast scouts.
The Zoltan task group headed further out-system, passing the orbit of Uranus at 3252 km/s in the general direction of Neptune. Scouts from the Republic of India and the Martian Union were on intercept courses and two separate Indian task groups cleared the asteroid belt in pursuit of the alien ships. Three days after the destruction of the Russian construction ship, one of the Martian Union scouts came under fire. Although it tried to run it was struck by several small salvos over the course of twenty minutes, suffering two secondary explosions before blowing up. The Zoltan seemed happy to shoot at anyone nearby, regardless of prior diplomatic status. A flotilla of Martian Clemenceau class FAC was already closing on the Zoltan task group. Thirty-six hours after the loss of the scout they moved within missile range and took out a previously undetected Zoltan destroyer with a single volley. Three FACs, detected via their active sensors emissions, moved after the Zoltan Hades. By now the Zoltan Tarterus had broken away from the main force and was headed for the jump point, presumably to reload. Two strength-8 hits and three energy weapon impacts were recorded in the same location as the Hades then the remaining FACs headed for Mars.
Next to approach the Zoltan task group, the location of which was known only by the active emissions of the Hades, was a formation of Indian Rajput class fast attack craft. While only three Indian FACs had active emissions, Jovian Naval Intelligence was aware of at least eight Rajputs based on past contacts so it seemed likely those three were not alone. That theory gained weight when the Zoltan task group was struck by fifty-four strength-4 detonations, destroying an 18,600 ton Beshaba class cruiser. The Rajputs continued their pursuit and launched a second strike thirty minutes later. Twenty-seven new detonations were recorded and the active emissions from the Hades ceased. Due to the loss of contact with the Hades Jovian sensors could no longer track the position of the Zoltan ships. Their position was revealed twice in the following ninety minutes though as three further attacks from the Indian FACs resulted in fifteen, nine and five hits respectively. The last attack resulted in a secondary explosion and the appearance of a Hades wreck. The Rajput class appeared to carry a lot of ordnance for a 1000 ton craft, unless there were even more Indian FACs than suspected by JNI. Those FACs that could be detected reversed course and headed for the inner system.
Although the Indian task groups detected earlier were no longer on Jovian active sensors, active emissions could still be detected from three Indian ships that were in those task groups. Those emissions were passing Uranus and still on course for the area in which the Beshaba and Hades were destroyed. Either the Republic of India was just confirming that all Zoltan ships had been eliminated or they still had active targets. Meanwhile the Zoltan Tarterus that had broken away from the main task group early in the battle transited the Sol – Typhon jump point. Two days after the destruction of the Hades combat broke out once again. A pair of strength-1 detonations were detected one hundred and twenty million kilometres from the leading Indian ship and two hundred and seventy-five million kilometres from the wreck of the Hades. Given the range this was more likely to be a defensive missile explosion than a successful attack.
A full scale defensive battle erupted as more Indian missiles targeted Zoltan ships that were not on Jovian sensors. More than thirty more strength-1 explosions were detected in the next few minutes, along with twenty-four energy weapon impacts. Those defences were overwhelmed though by the sheer numbers of attacking missiles. One hundred and twelve strength-4 detonations resulted in four 9300 ton Zoltan wrecks, one of which was an unknown type. The classes of the other three were identified as Shar, Adramelech and Mephistopheles, all of which had been detected during the initial contact with the Zoltan in the Typhon system. The Indian task group split up with some ships heading home and other moving toward the Typhon jump point.
A few days later, emissions from a Zoltan Tarterus class destroyer were detected on the jump point less than forty million kilometres from the Indian task group, which contained at least two ships based on emissions from Nishank and Veer class destroyers. A brief engagement ensued in which sixty strength-4 detonations were detected in the same location as the Zoltan ship. The wrecks of two Tarterus class ships appeared and the emissions ceased. The Veer class broke away and headed for Sol while the emissions from the Nishank moved to the jump point and vanished. The Jovian geological survey vessel Prometheus was ordered to leave Europa orbit and head for Typhon to determine what was happening
Several days after the battle, on June 17th, another Zoltan task group entered Sol, with active emissions being detected from five different ships. Their appearance did not bode well for the Indian ships that recently entered the Zoltan home system. For the moment, the Zoltan vessels remained near the Sol – Typhon jump point. Four days later Prometheus transited into Typhon. She detected four 9300 ton wrecks of an unknown type two hundred and fifty million kilometres from the jump point. Given their size their appeared to be from the Zoltan Empire. The wrecks of three Indian Nishank class destroyers were located close to the home world of the Zoltan Empire, presumably the result of an unsuccessful attack. A fourth Indian wreck, a Vipul class destroyer, was almost ten billion kilometres from the star. The only contact on sensors was an Abadan class destroyer of the United Mercurian Emirates one hundred and forty million kilometres from the Sol jump point. Prometheus waited an hour and then headed for home to report.
By late July 2202 the Jovian salvage vessel Aeolus had cleared the wrecks close to the Alpha Centauri-B solar system. Along with two Minerva class freighters she was ordered to head toward the Alpha Centauri-A solar system and begin salvaging those wrecks furthest from the Skye Enclave home world. The Aquila class escort Scorpii was assigned to the salvage group to provide missile defence just in case the Enclave objected to the approach of the Jovian ships. Two more Aeolus class were in service by this point, both clearing wrecks in the Sol system close to Jupiter’s orbit. Alpha Centauri had remained generally quiet since the last attack on the Enclave home world by the Martian Union in December 2101. However, a Wolf class survey ship of the Enclave was approaching Alpha Centauri-B and several ships of the United Mercurian Emirates had recently entered the system on a course for Alpha Centauri-A.
As the UME task group moved through the active sensor range of the Athena class sensor platform in Sparta orbit, its exact composition was determined. Two Homs class cruisers, two Zarqa class cruisers and an Amman class cruiser, all of which were 19,100 tons, plus two Sur class destroyers and a Kirkuk class destroyer, all three of which were 9550 tons. The eight UME warships stayed outside the orbit of Sparta and maintained their course toward the Alpha Centauri-A solar system.
On August 11th a Wolf class survey ship of the Skye Enclave entered Sol. It was immediately struck by eleven strength-6 energy weapon impacts and exploded. The only contact on Jovian sensors near the Sol – Alpha Centauri jump point was a Baranda class destroyer of the Latin Alliance. During the next two weeks a pair of Enclave Viper class geological survey ships transited into Sol and both met with a similar fate. In Alpha Centauri the UME task group passed back through the Alpha Centauri-B solar system without any sign of confrontation with the Skye Enclave during its visit to the primary star.
Asteria and Helios completed a survey of the EZ Aquarii system, two jumps from Sol via Luhman 16, in mid-September 2202. Three new jump points were discovered, leading to the systems of Aiakos, Rhadamanthys and Tau Ceti. The latter two systems had only a single planet each. Aiakos had ten planets but none of particular interest. Their task complete, the two survey ships headed home for an overhaul.
On October 6th, the Jovian geological survey ship Tethys was approaching the Alpha Centauri – Hesperus jump point. She detected four 9000 ton Enclave ships of a new type, designated as Eagle class, stationed on the jump point. The Enclave ships did not react to her approach so she transited into Hesperus to begin a survey of the system. A few hours later three more Jovian survey ships arrived at the Alpha Centauri – Lalande jump point. With Hesperus a dead-end, Lalande represented the only route outward from Alpha Centauri. Epimetheus and Phoebe would carry out a gravitational survey of Lalande while Perses investigated the system’s seven planets, forty-five moons and sparse asteroid belt, starting with Lalande II which was a potential terraforming candidate. Unlike the Alpha Centauri – Hesperus jump point, the jump point to Lalande only had a gate on the Alpha Centauri side.
Perses was four hundred and forty million kilometres from the Sol jump point when she detected almost two hundred 800 ton fast attack craft closing at 10,000 km/s. She initially attempted to hail them and then tried to run but she had no chance. The FACs, identified as the same race that sent a 60,000 ton ship to attack the Enclave home world, quickly closed to point blank range and opened fire with meson cannon, a form of energy weapon that bypassed armour. Perses disintegrated in a blizzard of energy fire. Phoebe was only forty million kilometres away while Epimetheus was on the far side of the Sol jump point. Both gravitational survey ships disengaged their active sensors to avoid giving away their position and ran for the jump point. After a tense couple of days, both ships transited back into Alpha Centauri within a few minutes of each other and raised the alarm.
The presence of such a strong alien force adjacent to Alpha Centauri and two jumps from Sol was of great concern to Admiral Cassandra Charleston, head of the Federation Navy. The Intruders had already demonstrated their possession of huge, albeit slow-moving, warships. Now it appeared those were supplemented by a vast force of deadly fast attack craft. The standing force at Sparta comprised two missile cruisers, two Minotaur class destroyers and three Aquila class escorts, one of which was detached to accompany the salvage ship Aeolus and her accompanying freighters. This force, known as the Third Battle Squadron, had recently relieved the Second Battle Squadron, which had the same composition and was currently undergoing overhaul in Europa orbit. The First Battle Squadron, also in Europa orbit, had a third destroyer and a fourth escort vessel. Two cruisers and three destroyers were under construction. With almost a third of the Federation Navy in overhaul, it was not possible to reinforce the Third Battle Squadron. Admiral Charleston put Lalande off-limits for the foreseeable future in the hope that the Intruders would not return to Alpha Centauri unless further provoked. If they did return, Sparta and its defenders would be in serious trouble.
On October 24th, Jovian deep space tracking stations on Sparta detected active emissions from eight new ships of the Skye Enclave, designated as Rattlesnake class. They were three hundred million kilometres from Aeolus and her freighters, currently salvaging the wreck of an Enclave Jaguar class battleship, and moving directly toward them at 5866 km/s. Given their speed, Jovian Naval Intelligence believed they were more likely to be unarmed scouts rather than warships. It was a gamble but the Enclave had yet to show hostility toward the Jovian Federation and the battleship was potentially a source of valuable technological data. Besides, Scorpii would be able to provide some protection against any missile attack. Admiral Charleston ordered the Jovian ships to hold position. The Rattlesnakes, confirmed as 9000 ton ships once within active sensor range, moved to point blank range of Aeolus, remained for a few minutes and then sped away.
Several days after the departure of the Rattlesnakes, the four Eagle class ships that had been detected at the Alpha Centauri – Hesperus jump point by Tethys, suddenly moved within Scorpii’s myopic active sensor range. They had not been detected by the tracking stations on Sparta as the range was two point seven billion kilometres and their active emissions were lower than the Rattlesnakes. They too moved to point blank range. Suddenly, one of the Minerva class freighters was torn apart by a barrage of energy weapon fire. Scorpii, Aeolus and the second freighter were taken completely by surprise and their reactions were slow. A few seconds after the initial attack, the second Minerva was gutted by a second volley and then blown apart by a third. Both freighters had been carrying valuable salvage from several Enclave and Solarian vessels. Scorpii did not even have time to launch any of her missiles in offensive mode before she too was destroyed. Aeolus lasted only a few more seconds. She took a considerable amount of valuable tech data with her.
Commodore Armand Benitez, commanding the Third Battle Squadron, immediately requested permission to break orbit of Sparta, hunt down the killers of the helpless freighters, rescue the Jovian survivors and then destroy every Skye Enclave ship in the system. Despite Admiral Charleston’s despair at her decision to let the salvage force remain in place and her desire for revenge, she ordered Commodore Benitez to remain in Sparta orbit. She could not leave the two million colonists unprotected, especially given recent events in Lalande. The Jovian Federation was now at war with both the Skye Enclave and the Intruders and a third of the Federation Navy was unavailable. Once the Second Battle Squadron was available for action the Federation would go on the offensive. In the meantime though there was a Skye Enclave colony on Alpha Centauri-B IV that was apparently undefended. An Ares class troop transport was in Sparta orbit and the Third Infantry Brigade was on the surface. Admiral Charleston ordered the brigade to launch an invasion of the enemy world as soon as possible.
A day later the Rattlesnakes reappeared, heading for the Alpha Centauri-B system. Whether they were really unarmed scouts or they had simply chosen not to open fire was unknown, but give their speed the former seemed more likely. When they entered active sensor range of the Athena, a billion kilometres from Sparta, Commodore Benitez repeated his request to break orbit and engage the enemy. This time, permission was given. The six warships of the Third Battle Squadron moved away from Sparta toward the eight approaching Enclave ships. When the range fell to four hundred million kilometres, close to the estimated sensor range of the alien ships, they reversed course and reduced speed to 4000 km/s, maintaining their distance. After pursuing for several hours Commodore Benitez ordered his ships back to Sparta. He could not catch the enemy task group and his own ships were being pulled too far from the Jovian colony. The Rattlesnakes followed, taking up station four hundred million kilometres from Sparta.
Meanwhile the Third Infantry Brigade landed unopposed on Alpha Centauri-B IV and advanced on the Enclave colony. The Skye Enclave also had ground forces in place and the Jovian troops ran into heavy resistance. Two of the infantry battalions and the brigade headquarters suffered casualties. The Jovian brigade commander, Brigadier Shima Masuko, ordered a halt to the attack and requested both reinforcements and orbital strikes. The brigade represented a quarter of the Jovian front-line ground forces, which had historically taken second place to the Federation Navy. A second infantry brigade was already en route to Alpha Centauri from Ganymede along with several reserve battalions, although the latter were not capable of offensive operations and could only serve as garrison troops. The request for orbital strikes was denied. It was the policy of the Jovian Federation not to launch nuclear strikes against planetary targets, partly for humanitarian reasons for mainly because of the potential environmental damage.
On November 8th 2202 the four Eagle class destroyers that had massacred the salvage group entered sensor range of the Athena class in Sparta orbit. At first it appeared they were moving past the Alpha Centauri-B solar system but then they moved on to a course that would take them close to Alpha Centauri-B IV. At the same time the Rattlesnakes began moving again, heading straight for Sparta. Commodore Benitez let them approach, They were too fast to pursue so he decided to let them enter missile range by themselves. When the range fell to sixty-five million kilometres he gave the order to open fire. His own ship Immortalis and her sister ship Imperator launched a total of twenty Javelin anti-ship missiles, the first volley fired in anger in the history of the Federation Navy. The Third Battle Squadron ceased fire after that single salvo. Benitez was well aware that his two missile ships only carried another two hundred and forty missiles between them. He wanted to test the enemy defences before fully committing to the attack. Thirty-four minutes after launch the Javelins intercepted the formation of Rattlesnakes. Nine missiles struck their target and their strength-9 warheads were sufficient to destroy it.
Rather than use almost sixty percent of his remaining ordnance by launching twenty Javelins at each Rattlesnake, Commodore Benitez detached his destroyers Centaur and Cerberus and ordered them to advance and attack with lasers. This was still based on the premise that the Enclave vessels were unarmed. The Rattlesnakes immediately reversed course so he ordered his missile cruisers to fire ten missiles at each one to slow them down and allow the destroyers to catch them. The first volley struck Rattlesnake 002 and Rattlesnake 003. The former suffered seven hits and blew up. The latter received only three hits, reducing its speed to 4266 km/s – still too fast for the pursuing Jovian destroyers. Commodore Benitez ordered Imperator to fire another salvo at the wounded Enclave ship. The second volley damaged Rattlesnake 004 and 005, slowing them to 4800 km/s and 3200 km/s respectively. Another salvo was launched at Rattlesnake 004. Rattlesnake 006 was hit three times and slowed to 4266 km/s. Immortalis targeted her again. Rattlesnake 007 also only took three hits but was blown apart by three large secondary explosions. A breakdown in coordination had resulted in twenty Javelins being fired at Rattlesnake 008. Even so, she survived the attack, slowing to 2666 km/s.
Three Rattlesnakes had been destroyed. Three more were damaged but still faster than the pursuing Minotaur class destroyers and had been targeted with new salvos of ten Javelins each. Two more were heavily damaged and unless they repaired their disabled engines would be caught by the Jovian destroyers. Immortalis and Imperator retained one hundred and thirty Javelins in their magazines. The three fresh salvos bored remorselessly down on their fleeing targets and blasted every one into scrap metal, leaving only the two cripples. Fifteen hours later, Centaur and Cerberus caught Rattlesnake 008 and destroyed it with a single salvo from their 19cm spinal lasers and 15cm main battery. By this point they were two hundred and sixty million kilometres from Sparta. The two Invictus class missile cruisers and Aquila class escorts were twenty million kilometres astern, having followed the destroyers to provide support if the Enclave ships managed to increase speed. The approaching Eagle class destroyers were one hundred and sixty million kilometres from the Minotaurs and three hundred and sixty million kilometres from Sparta. They had changed course to head directly for the Jovian colony.
While the destroyers continued their pursuit of the last Rattlesnake, Commodore Benitez ordered the rest of the Third Battle Squadron to change course and intercept the four Eagles. The Minotaurs killed the Rattlesnake four hours after the destruction of its sibling and set an intercept course for the Eagles, just in case the missile cruisers were unable to stop them. An hour later Immortalis and Imperator launched a single salvo at the Enclave task group to test its defences. Sixteen out of the twenty missiles were shot down by point defence fire and one of the remainder missed. The three missiles that did hit their target did not penetrate its armour, based on the lack of any atmospheric streaming. Based on the high rate of fire of the Eagles when they wiped out the salvage group plus their very effective defences, it appeared they were energy-armed escort destroyers. Unwilling to spend any more of his dwindling ordnance supplies against such defences, Commodore Benitez decided to force an energy range engagement. His own destroyers were faster and probably had longer-ranged weapons. Unfortunately they were out of position due to their pursuit of the Rattlesnakes. Centaur and Cerberus raced to intercept before the Eagles reached Sparta, while the rest of the Third Battle Squadron moved to rendezvous with the Minotaurs.
Twelve hours later the reformed Third Battle Squadron met the four Eagle class destroyers one hundred and sixty million kilometres from Sparta. Commodore Benitez ordered his force to maintain a distance of 100,000 kilometres, based on the assumption the enemy ships were armed with short-range lasers only. The plan worked perfectly. As the two forces closed on one another, the Third Battle Squadron came about and opened fire. Coordination was not perfect, due to the fact that fuel shortages had meant the Federation Navy had carried out only limited fleet exercises, and the actual battle took place at range of between 80,000 and 90,000 kilometres. Even so, at that range the 15cm lasers inflicted strength-2 hits and the 19cm spinal lasers inflicted strength-3 hits. One by one the enemy destroyers were blasted by laser fire until they fell out of formation due to engine damage. The fleet then reversed course and the Minotaurs picked off each of the cripples. Not a single hit was scored on any Jovian ship.
The Third Battle Squadron split up to rescue and interrogate the enemy survivors before returning to Sparta. Once there, Imperator transferred all her remaining Javelin anti-ship missiles to Immortalis then headed for the Sol jump point. She would reload her magazines from the ordnance factories on Io and then return to rejoin the squadron. A day after she departed, the Hercules class tug arrived in Sparta orbit towing an Orpheus class orbital defence base, borrowed from Ganymede Skywatch, The Orpheus would form the basis of an embryonic Sparta Skywatch.
to be continued...
