After the battle for Mars (while a major victory for the UN forces, the U Thant was in the shipyard for at least two weeks) the next few days was mostly quiet. The old Geo-surveyor "UNNS Mark Twain" was attacked by some force, which all expected to be some sort of FSA force, and the FSA liner "Princess Charlene Wittstock" was holed by a overexcited commander before the ship was able to prove its civilian nature.
However the FSA was not going to let this war go quietly in the night, and the 2nd major battle happened in the Jovian system. There would be no breaks to the war train.
The UNN Leviathan, A 17,000+ ton Nuclear Pulse battleship of the Colossus class, and it two escorts, the UNN Battleaxe and UNN Vincennes where in steady orbit around Ganymede, protecting the UN colony, and keeping close watch on the FSA colony on Io, who currently was being protected by a old Jarvis class gunboat who was quite happy to keep in firm orbit.
Captain Ruger Wagner did not mind, he knew the Lt. Commander of that gunboat, and he did not care to have that young officer end up the same way as the poor fools off Mars. He hoped cooler heads would prevail, and he had enough of a issue dealing with the feuding commanders Getty and Chapman. They had been in a relationship for years that went sour, and it would be his luck that these two would be in orbit in Ganymede to scare off any sort of meson-boats. Outside of "Task force 11" the UN had a good idea of where they would be. Task Force 11 had landed on a comet and had allowed the comet to take it out to deep space.
(Note: Zulu in these reports are time from first contact)
Zulu 00:00
"RED ALERT, RED ALERT, All hands report to general quarters, this is not a drill". The lights went into "Red Mode" and the Klaxon sounded throughout the ships.
"Report" as the Captain exited the staff meeting needed a report now.
"Four contacts inbound, 3 Swaard class gunboats, and one Orange class gunboat. Sensors active."
"Task Force 11" First officer Mary Oppenheimer piped in, doing her usual Intel job of stating the obvious.
Warm up the Gausses, weapons are free, We are not going to let them just come in and sit in weapon range and wait till they fire.
The Leviathan aimed each of its turrents to the 4 contacts, and the Kirov class escorts aimed at one.
The engines roared to life, and the old battlewagon was heading to battle.
Zulu 00:04
They are taking pot shots at us, all misses. They are shifting course, they are staying from getting in close range.
The Bridge was quiet, they knew the biggest weakness of the design was its range. And the gunboats had a killer advantage.
Faster then the Battleship, longer range shots then the battleship, and thus there was nothing that they could do.
"Fall back to Ganymede."
Zulu 00:06
well outside of their normal range, they slowly took slow pot shots at the UN fleet. The armor held, but they need to get closer.
3...2...1. Delta!
the UN fleet suddenly changed direction, and for a moment, the FSA fleet was in range, and the UN opened fire, pattering fire across the FSA ships. However while scoreing many hits, none broke the skin.
"We could use a spinal laser on this thing" the battleship capt groaned as yet another beam melted more armor.
Zulu 00:09
Delta!
for the 3rd time the UN fleet was able to launch shots at the FSA fleet, but now they fell back even more, to the point that the error was no longer likely.
We have orders from Command, fall to earth, they will send out a battlefleet to force off Task force 11, but we have to close the distance.
"That billion of miles"
"It our only chance. "
Make it so.
Zulu 00:12
Armor is holed on the Battleaxe and Leviathan
Zulu 00:13 This is battleaxe, we are venting atmosphere, weapons are offline.
Time to split the task force, we will drop to earth, the Cruisers will charge to hopefully cause them damage.
Zulu 00:15
"This is the battleaxe, our drive is down, weapon systems out, good luck. If they approach to board I will scuttle the ship...."
"Good luck Getty, I will buy you a drink when we get back." and he hoped Chapman would be able to do damage, as the cruisers were able to at least get some hits, even if the Battleaxe was now dead in space. The UN had underestimated the power of the FSA gunboats.
Zulu 00:16
Out of range of the FSA gunboats, the remaining cruiser heads to cover the colony, while the Battleship continues it dive into the Jupiter moon system, with the FSA gunboats in hot pursuit.
Zulu 00:18
Staying out of range of the battleship, even if their percent to hit was under 30%, the fleets dive below the orbit of Europa, when the Leviathan shutters, as a laser hits one of its straining engines, it holds, but the crew knows it now just a matter of time. Time is not on their side.
Zulu 00:21
The Captain was thinking this is a tough old ship when it shuttered again from another strike.
"Turret C is out"
Get a control team on that, see if we can repair it.
The next strike hits, and then another.
"leak in fuel tank 4"
His first officer, pale said "Its been a honor to serve under your command."
Conn-Tactical. I will just say there not much armor left on the ship. in fact, sensors indicate our quarter plate C7 as a fighter since it melted off.
"Never know, they might be hiding some fighters in a outer moon for us."
"We can only hope."
Zulu 00:25 The bridge takes a direct strike. All officers are lost.
Zulu 00:26
The UNN Leviathan explodes in a ball of plasma. The UNN Battleaxe detonates the auto-destruct sequence. The UNN Vincennes picks up survivors of the Battleaxe, and withdraws from the Jovian area. The other ships of the Task Force 11 become more clear when FSA troops land on Ganymede, and quickly overtake the colony.
And now a fluffy bit.
The UN war council sat as Admiral Hoffman gave his report.
"In the last two months of hostilities, it has been mostly contained. There has been two Major battles, the Battle for Mars, which we where victorious, and the the Ganymede incident, which we lost."
"In addition, 4 of our cargo or survey ships have been lost, and the troop transport the Utah was lost due to suspected sabotage. We have taken out 6 spy vessels and 3 cargo ships that tried to break the Mars Blockade. The Mars Blockade continues, and we understand that they are on 1/2 rations and starting to run low on some spare parts. We suspect that the FSA Mars colony will surrender, and thus give us undisputed control of Mars and it's ruins in two to three weeks."
"What about the, PR issues?"
"As we know, the FSA is broadcasting images of the suffering civilians of the colony, while ignoring the fact that they put 10 army units in violation of our treaties. We are pushing talking points of those treaty violations."
"Why has the FSA fleet mostly stayed in orbit?" the Representative of Mexico asked, he sighed, as he knew she did not know much about Naval matters.
"right now both our fleets are sitting in orbit and no one dares turns on active sensors till they are far enough away. This is due to the simple fact that both of us can use trans-Newtonian rockets to nuke each other cities in five seconds. If their fleet leaves, then they risk a all or nothing battle, and we feel that they do not think they are up to par to the UN Navy."
"Could you go over the fleets?"
"Yes Ma'm."
"The UN Navy consists of 19 capital ships, 3 Super-battleships of the Dag Hammarskjöld class, two of which are in service, 6 battleships of the Majestic class, 3 battle cruisers of the Inflexible class, and 7 battleships of the Colossus class (which he didn't mention was 2nd rate), In addition we have 8 City class cruisers, 4 cruisers of the Bex class, 11 light cruisers of the Kirov class, and 15 frigates of the Town class. We also have the carrier Ark Royal and it fighters."
"The FSA fleet is designed to be slightly smaller and have more numbers. Their main battle fleet consists of the 8 Rouhani class battleships, 20 Warlock class Cruisers, 19 Trekker class light cruisers, 33 Swaad Class gunboats, 16 Orange class Gunboats, 12 Scipio Africanus Patrol craft, and several wings of Gazelle Meson Fighter-bombers.
In addition, they have launched a ship we call the "Anubis", which we do not know the role it has, nor it speed due to not risking lighting it up with active sensors near earth.
So in total, the UN forces have 58 ships, 19 of which are capital ships, of which all are at least frigate level in size. As per our 20/40 plan of 20 capital and 40 support ships.
The FSA has 108 ships, however only 8 are capital ships. Outside of the Battleships and the Warlocks, our intel says they are lightly armored and we suspect that they will not last in combat. "
Admiral Hoffman smiled, it was a good report, this war was almost over. Then he felt his service communicator vibrate. He saw the other naval officers light up, along with key war council communicators.
Stepping away from the podium, he checked his communicator, and gulped.
"Ladies and gentlemen, estemed leaders of the free world, I must get to my ship. As of 0800 hours this morning we detected thermal plumes in the entire FSA fleet orbiting earth. They are headed to Mars to break the blockade, and we will go and stop them."