Month 221, Day 23, Alliance controlled Herzberg System
The Alliance 2nd Fleet arrived at the warp point to the Lothari home system without incident.  Shortly after arriving, Skull-Splitter dispatched a small group of pinnaces through the warp point to scout the far side.  They managed to return without being detected, and reported that there was a small force of fighters and gunboats stationed approximately two light seconds from the warp point.  Skull-Splitter decided to change his original plans and launch an immediate attack on the warp point. 

The warp point linking the Herzberg system to the Lothari system had limited capacity, meaning that it could accommodate nothing larger than a destroyer transiting every five seconds.  This meant that the Alliance battleships, intended for warp point assaults, would be limited to two transiting every thirty seconds, or three battlecruisers per thirty seconds.  Instead, Skull-Splitter decided to send his escort carriers through first, as the only defending force seen by the pinnaces was small craft.  As they were the size of a destroyer, that meant that the escort carriers could go through at the rate of one every five seconds.  Once on the far side, as soon as they had stabilized their systems, they would launch their fighters and return.  The fighters would be armed for anti-small craft work, and any enemy ships detected farther out would be left to the ships of the fleet. 

The first CVE’s lined up in front of the warp point and began transiting through.  There would be three waves of CVE’s, followed by two waves of battlecruisers and then destroyers.   The leading CVE was an older Kamikaze class escort carrier, which, unlike modern CVE’s, mounted a long-range sensor but carried fewer fighters. 

The CVE’s appeared on the far side of the warp point and immediately began turning back towards the warp point.  There were indeed Lothari fighters and gunboats stationed two light seconds from the warp point, thirty-six in total.  The Alliance crews struggled to stabilize their systems as their ships nimbly turned in front of the warp point to prepare to leave. 

As the second wave began entering, the first wave launched its fighters and began exiting the system.  The lead Kamikaze class carrier’s long-range scanners confirmed that a group of eighteen drive fields was located ten-point-five light seconds from the warp point, out of range of all weapons.  Behind them, the Lothari fighters and gunboats raced towards the warp point and the newly launched Alliance fighters moved out to intercept them.  Twenty-four Lothari fighters, all F2’s armed with two guns and a laser pack, along with an internal laser, intercepted the Alliance fighters at point blank range, while twelve prototype gunboats hung back and launched AFM’s at the Alliance fighter swarm.  The Lothari fighters were outnumbered by the eighty-seven Alliance fighters disgorged by the first wave of escort carriers, which had then exited the system as a new wave of escort carriers entered.  Worse, the Lothari pilots were all green and inexperienced, while the Alliance crews were veterans of multiple battles and rated as elite.  The skirmish was over quickly, with the Alliance losing fifteen fighters, six to AFM fire from the gunboats and nine to the Lothari fighter force.  The Lothari fighter force was completely wiped out. 

As the dogfight cleared the second wave of escort carriers disgorged their fighters and exited the system, and a third group of escort carriers entered.  The Lothari gunboats accelerated towards the newly arrived escort carriers and fired on the leading warp-addled carriers, inflicting heavy damage before the vengeful Alliance fighters pounced on them, wiping them out.  The warp point was now clear. 

The escort carriers from the third wave launched their fighters, less the ones destroyed in their bays by the gunboats, and then left the system, as Alliance battlecruisers began entering the system.  The Lothari squadron turned away from the warp point and began opening the range, and in response the entire Alliance fighter group, now two hundred and twenty-eight strong, went into pursuit. 

A second trio of battlecruisers began entering the system and the first group of BC’s, now recovered, also went into pursuit of the withdrawing Lothari squadron.  The pursuit continues as carriers begin entering the system to join the growing fleet on the warp point.  Finally, three and a half minutes after the Alliance force began entering the system, the Lothari fleet launched an additional seventy-eight fighters and thirty-nine gunboats. 

With their small craft now in space the Lothari force turned back towards the warp point and accelerated to intercept the Alliance fighter force.  Although the Lothari small craft were faster than their ships, they all stayed together in one group as they began their attack run.  With the Lothari force turning back, the three pursuing Alliance battlecruisers are finally close enough for their long-range sensors to confirm that the Lothari force is composed of seventeen escort carriers and a single battle cruiser. 

The Alliance fighter force, over three light seconds ahead of the trio of Alliance battlecruisers following them, races towards the approaching Lothari force, but before they can close to point blank range the Lothari ships come to a crash halt and began detuning their engines, making themselves difficult targets.  The Lothari ships, fighters, and gunboats all opened fire on the Alliance fighters at point seven-five light seconds.  The Lothari escort carriers each mounted a single capital point defense system, which was perfectly suited for engaging fighters at ranges of a light second or even farther, but their crews were all green as they had just boarded their ships at the start of this month when the ships were reactivated from the mothball reserves.  The Lothari fighters each had two external laser packs and an internal laser, all of which had the range to engage the Alliance fighters, but they too were green and inexperienced.  The lone battlecruiser’s crew was something else, a veteran of the early battles of the war, and they used their capital point defense systems and their heavy lasers with expertise.  Even so, they only managed to destroy thirty-one Alliance fighters, while the elite Alliance fighters returned fire with their own laser packs, destroying all of the Lothari gunboats and twenty-four of the Lothari fighters. 

The Lothari ships braced to receive the Alliance fighters, with some of the CVE’s turning to ensure that no matter where the Alliance fighters attacked, there would be at least some defensive fire that would meet them.  The Lothari ships continued detuning their drive fields as the Alliance fighters raced in to point blank range and the Alliance battlecruiser group closed to just under four light seconds.  The Lothari fighters moved to meet the Alliance fighters, and about a third of the Alliance fighter force split off to engage the Lothari fighters, while the remainder attacked the big Lothari battlecruiser.  The battlecruiser ignored the fighters and began targeting the lead Alliance BC, while the Alliance BC’s returned the favor.  The Lothari BC only managed to slightly damage one of the Alliance battlecruiser’s shields, while the return fire from the Alliance battlecruiser group and the one hundred and seventeen Alliance fighters that had targeted the lone Lothari battlecruiser completely overwhelmed the tough ship’s defenses, leaving only a burning hulk.  The eighty Alliance fighters that had been diverted to engage the Lothari fighters destroyed them all, at a loss of twenty-four of their own number from the Lothari fighters and the point defense systems of the Lothari ships. 

The Lothari were now in dire straits.  Their lone warship had been destroyed, along with all of their small craft.  Over one hundred seventy Alliance fighters were at point blank range of their remaining seventeen escort carriers, and an intact Alliance battlecruiser group was within weapons range of the unarmed escort carriers.  They literally had no hope of achieving much of anything at this point.  Skull-Splitter was tempted to let his fighters wipe them out, but the Lothari unwillingness to surrender was beginning to concern him, given the ultimate goal of his campaign was to force the Lothari state to surrender.  Out of curiosity as much as anything else, Skull Splitter transmitted a surrender demand to the escort carriers and then settled in to await their response. 

He didn’t have to wait long for their response.  As a group, the seventeen Lothari escort carriers stopped detuning their engines and accelerated towards the Alliance battlecruiser group, presumably with the intent to ram them.  They didn’t make it far.  The Alliance fighters swooped on the carriers as they tried to close with the big Alliance ships and began strafing them with laser fire from behind, while the Alliance battlecruisers came to a halt and began targeting them with their heavy beam weapons.  The elite Alliance fighters simply didn’t miss, and were firing to disable, not destroy.  In thirty seconds, all of the escort carriers had been slowed to half speed by the busy fighters, and three had been crippled by heavy beam fire from the battlecruisers.  In another thirty seconds it was nearly over.  All of the escort carriers had been reduced to a crawl, their bays and point defenses destroyed. 

Skull Splitter gave them one more chance to surrender.  In their current state they could have no possible effect on the war.  Their small craft were destroyed, their point defenses were wreckage, and their engines were so damaged they would never be able to ram any of the Alliance ships. 

The only response from the crippled Lothari ships was to come to a halt and go into a hedgehog.  Alliance sensors couldn’t tell what they were doing, but the only thing that made sense was that they were attempting to repair as much damage to their systems as possible.  That left Skull-Splitter with little choice.  He couldn’t leave them here, so close to the warp point.  If they did manage to regain some of their mobility then they could threaten ships transiting the warp point, particularly support ships.  He could dispatch marines to seize the defenseless ships, but that would likely just force the suicidally determined Lothari to destroy their ships along with the Alliance marines.  After thinking about it for a bit, Skull Splitter shrugged.  No one here would lose any sleep over a few more Lothari.  He sent the orders and the fighters made one more pass, after which there weren’t any Lothari ships left.  Perhaps even more disturbing was the fact that there wasn’t even one life pod left in space from the Lothari fleet.  The fleet’s crewers had all gone up with their ships.   

Skull Splitter assembled his fleet on the warp point.  He had the following forces:

Strike Force: 9xBBA, 10xBC(Beam), 6xBC(msl), 10xCA, 8xDD
Carrier Group: 3xCV, 1xCVS, 24xCVE, 461xF1, 57xF0
Scout Group: 28xCTV, 78xF0, 96xF1

It wasn’t a huge force, but with over six hundred fighters it was still powerful.  The temptation to wait on the warp point for reinforcements was strong, but he had the Lothari on the ropes, he could feel it.  The force they had guarding their warp point had the feel of a squadron thrown together at the last minute from whatever they had available, which might mean that they had little left to defend their home planet.  So, after consulting with his officers, who were uniformly in favor of an immediate attack, he ordered his fleet to proceed in-system to the Lothari home planet.  It was just seventy-two light minutes away, so the fleet would arrive in three days. 

Month 221, Day 26, Contested Lothari home system
The Alliance fleet was now fifteen light seconds from the Lothari home planet.  Skull-Splitter had sent two groups of his corvette carriers forward to gather information on the defenses around the Lothari home planet, and fortunately they did not come under fire when they entered SBM range.  The scout’s long-range sensors confirmed that there were nine very large battle stations orbiting the planet, along with two space stations.  Given the activity around the two stations it was obvious that they were orbital shipyards, and after some time observing them, it was clear that each had ten bays, many of which were busy reactivating mothballed ships.  In addition to the ships being worked on in the bays, there were another nine inactive hulls in close proximity to the shipyards. 

Skull Splitter ordered his staff to begin transmitting demands for surrender to the Lothari world and to the bases and stations in orbit over it, but the transmissions were uniformly ignored.  After giving them some time, Skull Splitter ordered his two groups of missile-armed battlecruisers to move into range and begin the attack. 

The six battlecruisers moved forward and entered SBM range of the bases, but there was no response.  The battlecruisers moved forwards, edging into capital missile range, again without drawing a response.  The battlecruisers launched their first salvo at one of the bases at seven light-seconds range.  One of the groups of BCs were firing seventeen anti-matter tipped capital missiles per salvo, and the other fired fifteen, but neither managed to get any missiles through the huge base’s incredibly dense point defense network.  After the first salvo failed, the battlecruisers closed to six point two five light seconds and fired again.  This time they managed to punch two anti-matter warheads through the base’s defenses to impact its shields, but this time they provoked a response.  Each base fired no less than nine spinal force beams, scoring twenty hits on the lead battlecruiser, taking out its shields and reducing its armor to 50%. 

That was enough for the battlecruiser group leader to order a retreat, and the battlecruisers came about and began moving away from the planet and its defenses.  Fortunately, in an excess of caution, the group commander had ordered his BC’s to begin their turn as they had launched their last salvo of missiles, so they didn’t have to approach the planet much closer than they already were.  The bases fired again at the same BC before they could escape, getting nine hits and almost chewing their way through the targeted BC’s armor.  The BC’s were now beyond spinal force beam range, and they came to a halt at eight light seconds range, and launched another salvo of missiles.  This time they weren’t targeted on the bases, but rather the orbital shipyards.  It took five salvoes, but the shipyards and the mothballed ships they were working on were destroyed.  With that the battlecruisers came about and returned to the main fleet. 

Once again Skull Splitter issued a demand for surrender, and once again he was ignored.  It was time for a fighter strike.  The Alliance fleet launched its fighters, all six hundred and ninety-two.  They were all armed with a full load of anti-ship sprint missiles with anti-matter warheads.  This was to be an alpha strike, meant to clear the sky of the enemy’s forces.  It was a risk, as the Lothari might have kept some fighters or gunboats in reserve, but if so then the fighter strike would return and some of them would rearm.   

The fighters raced away from their carriers towards the enemy bases. In terms of weapons the bases had only used spinal force beams so far, but had also demonstrated heavy point defense capabilities, so the fighters were ordered to rush to point blank range and engage the bases.  The bases were in three groups of three bases each, spaced around the planet. 

Because the bases couldn’t move, they were at a disadvantage, and the Alliance fighter force raced right through their most effective point defense engagement range without being engaged.  The fighters plunged to point blank range and began launching their close attack missiles into the mammoth bases.  The bases responded with everything they had.  The explosions were blinding, even filtered by the planet’s atmosphere, and thousands of Lothari on the surface lost their eyesight as they rushed outside to witness the destruction taking place over their planet.  Each base was immense, mounting nearly six times the shielding and twice the armor as the latest Alliance battlecruiser design.  Worse, each base mounted eight advanced capital point defense units, nine spinal force beams, and fifteen HET lasers!  Watching the destruction focused on his fighters, Skull-Splitter was sure that had he sent in his fleet they would have been doomed, even his heavy battleships.  The bases were outmatched by the Alliance fighters, though.  The base’s massive beam weapons, which would have ripped apart the heaviest Alliance ships in seconds, could only kill one fighter each, and only if they could hit it.  The base’s crews defended themselves as best they could, but nothing could stop the Alliance fighters, each and every one of which was crewed by a D’Bringi who was determined to restore honor to their race by utterly destroying this most despicable of enemies.

Seventy-four fighters were lost as the fighter group swept through the orbital fortresses, but it only took one attack run to wipe all nine bases out.  There was nothing but wreckage left as the fighters returned to their bays.   The Lothar home world was now denuded of defenses, open to attack.  Skull Splitter brought his fleet to just one light second from the planet and began transmitting demands for surrender.  Even as the surrender demands were sent towards the planet, Skull Splitter ordered the invasion fleet, which had been waiting in the Herzberg system, to enter the Lothari home system and proceed to their home planet.  He dispatched his scout force to cover the advance of the transports, just in case there were hold-out forces still present. 

So, is there a tactical counter to SBM pod spam? Because basically 15 destroyers wiped out an entire fleet on their own - if they had a full complement of pods, it would have been a total wipe.

You are correct, but a couple of notes.  Using pod ships like that requires pre-planning and the enemy sticking to your plan.  The pods have to be deployed from drive-field down ships, then activated, at which time they follow their program.  If the Lothari had done something unexpected, it would have resulted in wasting some or all of the pods.  Also, if the Lothari had been able to send in enough fighters to overwhelm the Alliance's fighter force, they could have kept their own fleet out of range of the pods and used their fighters to pick them off, or damage or destroy the Alliance fleet. 

Basically, the Alliance had the perfect setup for the use of the pod ships.  The Lothari weren't expecting them and had never used them themselves, so they weren't watching for them in spite of the fact that they knew what they existed.  The Lothari were coming for the Alliance fleet, allowing the Alliance to sit on the defensive, which gave the pod ships time to deploy their pods and program them.  The Lothari then acted predictably, which the Alliance took advantage of. 

In a more fluid situation, where the enemy is aware of the existence and use of pod-layers, it becomes much more difficult to use them effectively.  If this was a meeting battle in deep space, then the enemy would have seen the pod-laying destroyers drop their drive fields and would have been able to react.  The only plausible reason for this activity in deep space would have been to either arm/rearm gunboats or deploy cargo from a cargo hold.  This would allow the enemy to retreat from the pod-layers, or to vector in fighters to attack the drive-field down ships. 

I generally try to avoid having everything go right for one side, but in this case the Lothari are arrogant and convinced of their superiority, and desperate as well.  They fell right into the trap.

Kurt

1) Kill the destroyers
2) Kill the pods with a small craft strike

The pods also cost a LOT, the fleet did not have full loads for the destroyers. It is likely that the pod strike cost as much as half a dozen battlecruisers. They are also now unavailable to destroy WP defenses. Also in this case the fighters of the Alliance fleet would probably have been enough to win the battle.
From what I recall deployment and activation is somewhat slow so if the enemy don't attack a fixed point you are defending then using them is hard. They also have targeting limitation unless under direct control of the ship launching them, which limits the number you can deploy,

IIRC Kurt, you were going to experiment with a system to deal with these huge small craft battles - how'd it go?

Month 221, Day 8, Disputed Herzberg system, Lothari Front
The Alliance Fleet had been picketing the warp point from Herzberg to Liawak for months, as reinforcements arrived from the inner systems and ships were repaired and refitted.  Skull-Splitter had decided that they could wait no more, and in twelve more days the fleet would advance on the warp point to the Lothari home system, timing it to arrive at the end of the month, at which point the fleet’s newly built, repaired, or refitted ships would have completed their work-ups and would be ready for battle. 

The Lothari were apparently working on the same timeline, because in the early hours of the day a drive field contact appeared on the Alliance picket ship’s scanners at extreme range, headed directly for the warp point.  This contact was unexpected and no notification had been made from the Lothari ambassadorial ship.  Therefore, Skull-Splitter ordered the Lothari ambassadorial liner boarded and seized, and dispatched the 2nd Fleet’s twenty-nine corvette carriers to intercept the incoming contact and determine its makeup.  The seizure of the Lothari ambassadorial ship went off without a hitch, aside from the vigorous complaints from the Lothari ambassador, and the scouts set out to intercept the incoming contact. 

Eighteen hours later the Alliance scouts were within twelve light minutes of the contact and were able to determine that it was composed of forty-nine ships.  This was a substantial force, and more ships that Skull-Splitter had thought that the Lothari would have available, indicating either they had extensive reserves or an ally.  In either case the Alliance scouts pressed forward, trying to get close enough to determine the Lothari fleet’s makeup, but were unable to get within fifteen light seconds to get detailed scans of the enemy fleet.  Before they could close to that range, the Lothari fleet launched hundreds of fighters and gunboats, which all advanced to intercept the Alliance scouts.  The Alliance corvette-carriers didn’t carry enough fighters to deal with the Lothari fighter-gunboat force, so they were forced to turn back towards the warp point and run ahead of the Lothari fleet.  The Lothari small craft were unable to catch the fast Alliance scouts, but they were able to keep them away from their fleet. 

As the Alliance scouts dueled with the Lothari fleet, Skull-Splitter was readying his force for battle. 

While he didn’t know the makeup of the enemy fleet, he had a pretty good idea of Lothari technological capabilities and standard fleet strategies at this point.  The Lothari tended to field battlecruiser-heavy fleets, supported by gunboats and fighters.  The gunboats were interesting, given their ability to transit warp points, but could not stand up to fighters in open space.  Also, the engineers and scientists that had been studying Lothari tech informed him that gunboats were too large to be carried in internal bays.  They had to be carried on external racks, which meant that the ships that carried them could not also carry external ordnance.  Or defensive equipment, like EDM’s.  This would make them vulnerable to missile attacks, and while his fleet didn’t have that many missile ships, it did have something new.  Fifteen destroyers of a new design had recently arrived to bolster his forces.  These destroyers didn’t mount any weapons.  Instead, they had large cargo bays and tractor mounts.  The bays could carry one hundred and twenty strategic bombardment missile pods, and each destroyer mounted five improved tractor mounts, meaning it could deploy ten pods a minute.  If given time, each destroyer could deploy its pods and launch a salvo of three hundred and sixty SBM’s with anti-matter warheads.  Fifteen of them could deploy eighteen hundred pods, creating a massive missile wave that most fleets would have trouble weathering.  Unfortunately, he didn’t have twelve hundred pods available, but he did load the destroyers with every pod he did have, one thousand and fifty in total.  The Lothari were in for a big surprise. 

To suck the Lothari in Skull-Splitter ordered his fleet divided into four divisions.  First, he detached a group of ships, including all of the assault battleships, and stationed them in the Liawak system, at the warp point.  They would remain in position until needed, or, in the worst case, defend the warp point should the Lothari overwhelm his fleet.  Secondly, his carriers were stationed on the warp point on the Herzberg side, and would launch their fighters and retreat through the warp point to safety before the battle began.  The pods destroyers were stationed behind his fleet, where they could launch their pods and then retreat to the warp point once their part in the battle was finished.  Finally, the twenty-four ships of his main fleet were stationed two point five light seconds from the warp point.  The apparent weakness of his fleet would suck the Lothari in, and then his SBM pods and fighters would overwhelm them. 

Month 221, Day 10, Disputed Herzberg system, warp point to Liawak
Swordsman of Stars Weber watched as the plot tank updated as his fleet crossed the invisible fifteen light second barrier around the warp point and his sensors were finally able to see more detail about the enemy fleet.   Twenty-four ships Alliance ships were assembled within three light seconds of the warp point.  He felt hope swell within him, as he had more than twice that number in his fleet.  He turned to the command ship’s sensor officer.  “Report!”

“Sir, twenty-four ships are confirmed, twelve battlecruisers, nine cruisers, and three destroyers.  Numerous indistinct drive fields detected, possibly fighters, numbers unknown.  Fifteen ships without drive fields detected, point five light seconds behind the main enemy force.”

Weber paused.  The fifteen ships without drive fields could be a problem, but they would have to be very big to offset his fleet’s advantage.  “Very well.  Signal all ships to accelerate to combat speed.  Enemy battlecruisers are the priority target, until further notice.”

The Lothari fleet accelerated and closed on the Alliance fleet, which remained motionless.  Both sides held their small craft close to their main fleet.  Two minutes later the Lothari fleet had closed to nine light seconds from the main Alliance fleet, and the tactical plot updated.  Swordsman of Stars Weber paled as he realized the true extent of the Alliance fleet’s power.  His ship’s sensors were now able to determine the number of small, indistinct drive fields around the main Alliance fleet, even if they could not determine the type.  There were almost fourteen hundred small drive fields surrounding the Alliance fleet, almost certainly fighters.  His own fleet, which he had thought so powerful only a moment ago, only boasted five hundred and eighty-one fighters and gunboats.  On the other hand, the drive-field down ships had powered up and revealed themselves as destroyers, meaning that they wouldn’t meaningfully alter the balance of power between the two fleets.  Weber was still trying to deal with the fact that the Alliance’s fighter force outnumbered his nearly three to one when an alert went off.  He turned to the sensor officer.  “Report!”

“Sir, new contact, unknown drive fields in the same location as the enemy destroyer force, numbering one thousand and fifty!”

Weber gaped at the tank, trying to understand what was happening.  This had to be a second fighter force.  “The fleet will turn away until we can determine the true strength of the enemy.  Engage enemy battlecruisers with SBM’s!”

The Lothari fleet had been advancing even as Weber issued orders, so by the time the fleet began turning they had closed to seven point five light seconds from the Alliance fleet.  The presumed fighter contacts had advanced away from the Alliance fleet, towards the Lothari fleet, and by the time the Lothari began turning they were just six point two five light seconds from the Lothari ships.  At that range the Lothari long range sensors could determine with specificity the type and class of the small drive fields, and Weber was shaken to his core.  Indeed, there were almost fourteen hundred Alliance fighters out there, but the second contact numbering one thousand and fifty was instead SBM pods!

Both sides opened fire with long range weapons, targeting each other’s long-range battlecruisers.  The Alliance only had two battlecruisers equipped with long range missiles, while the Lothari had nine.  Even so, the range was long and only one Lothari missile got through to hit an Alliance BC’s shields. 

The pods, escorted by Alliance fighters, raced at the Lothari fleet, which completed its turn and began moving away from the oncoming Alliance swarm.  The missile ships of each fleet continued dueling, to little effect, with only one Lothari missile getting through the Alliance fleet’s defenses to hit a battlecruiser’s shields.  It was then that the SBM pods fired.  Suddenly, three thousand one hundred and fifty missiles were in space, headed towards the Lothari fleet.  The avalanche of missiles was aimed primarily at the Lothari battlecruiser force, with a relative few aimed at the escorting heavy cruisers.  The missiles impacted across the fleet simultaneously, forcing each ship to defend itself, without its data-group’s assistance.   The results were devastating.  A massive wave of explosions engulfed the Lothari fleet, and when they died away most of the battleline was just gone.  Out of thirty-two battlecruisers and heavy cruisers, just five remained.  The four battlecruisers still active were all the long-range variant, and this was due solely to the fact that they carried no gunboats and instead mounted external racks that had been loaded with decoy EDM’s.  The EDM’s had saved the four surviving battlecruisers, two of which still had armor and were intact.  One of the other two battlecruisers had suffered minor internal damage, losing an engine room, while the fourth battlecruiser and the lone heavy cruisers were wrecks, reduced to 16% of their original speed.  The Lothari carrier force hadn’t been targeted, and was still intact.  The Lothari heavy cruiser force, which was its primary anti-fighter force, was devastated by the attack, with only two cruisers remaining and those both crippled. 

Swordsman of Stars Weber, who by some trick of fate had survived aboard the battlecruiser that had lost an engine room, was staggered by the destruction wrought upon his fleet.  His fleet was ruined, and all hope of victory was lost.  Surrender was not an option, as had been made clear by the Great Leader, and by the Internal Security, who had promised the execution of everyone related to any officer that surrendered in the face of the enemy, no matter the reason.  Therefore, there was only one thing to do.  Weber ordered the fleet to come about and charge the enemy.  He ordered his carriers to ram the closest enemy ships, while the gunboats and fighters were to advance on the enemy fighter force which was now racing towards his fleet. 

The Lothari gunboat force launched a salvo of anti-fighter missiles as the two groups of small craft closed on each other, taking out just over one hundred and fifty Alliance fighters, and then the two groups of small craft slammed together in front of the Lothari fleet.  Behind them, the Alliance fleet had accelerated towards the Lothari fleet, closing with the battered enemy fleet as the two groups of small craft slugged it out. 

With the Lothari small craft being so heavily outnumbered, the results were inevitable.  When the furball cleared, all of the Lothari small craft had been destroyed, and four hundred and fifteen Alliance fighters had died, leaving seven hundred and sixty-one Alliance fighters in between the Lothari fleet and the Alliance fleet.  Meanwhile, the two fleets were slugging it out, as they were now in range of their heavy beam weapons.  The Alliance had the advantage here as well.  The Alliance ships concentrated their fire on the two Lothari battlecruisers that had survived the pod attack without losing all of their armor, cutting through the already shredded armor belt and inflicting internal damage. 

With the Lothari small craft gone, the Alliance fighters now turned on the Lothari fleet.  Swordsman of Stars Weber had ordered the fleet to ram Alliance battlecruisers, so instead of trying to avoid the Alliance fighters or modulating their engines to reduce the effectiveness of their weapons, the Lothari fleet headed straight towards the Alliance fleet, which had turned and was moving to maintain the range.  Thus, the Alliance fighters were able to line up a perfect shot from directly behind the Lothari force, protected from their point defense by the blind spot inflicted by their engines. 

The Alliance heavy cruisers and battlecruisers wiped out the remaining Lothari battlecruisers and then began targeting light carriers, damaging four.  Then the fighters swept up behind the Lothari force and, just like that, the battle was over.  The seven hundred remaining fighters completely overwhelmed the remaining Lothari ships and wiped them from space in one firing pass.  No ships were spared, and the fighters hunted down the two remaining crippled ships that had fallen behind and destroyed them without mercy.  None of the Lothari ships attempted to surrender, and no life pods were ejected from Lothari ships. 

The Alliance force expended 1,050 SBM pods and lost five hundred and sixty-eight fighters.  One heavy cruiser suffered minor armor damage.  Skull-Splitter ordered his fifteen pod destroyers to return to Liawak, as they had expended all of the available pods and more wouldn’t be available until next month, along with the twenty carriers of various sizes that had lost their fighter complements.  With his reorganization complete, he ordered the one hundred and six ships of the 2nd Fleet to set course for the warp point to the Lothari home system.  For now, they would ignore the Lothari colony in the inner system.