Operation BaitThe game has been updated to the 1.9.5 version.1907Red telephones ring in capitals across the world as astronomers confirm that the fairly large, but so far passive, object in Mars orbit has activated. Recognizing the similarities between it and human shipyards, there can be no other explanation but that the destruction of the frigate caused some sort of build program to slowly start and it had now advanced to the point where ship construction had started.
Mars was 252 million kilometers from Earth but there was no time to waste. Operation Bait was a go.
Japan, Iberia, and Rim Pact had no ships, though the last one had built a tiny recon satellite which now turned its sensor on. The A-H fleet was undergoing repairs and overhaul and could not move immediately. This still left a fairly impressive number of ships departing Earth orbit on 4 January and heading towards Mars.
Progress of fleets after 24 hours, the situation as seen in the German War Room.
At 05:00 the Italia Fleet, being the fastest as Germans were slowed down by their Blucher-class corvettes, were in the lead as they received an urgent telegram from Earth - the Menace Void Ships were moving. The Italians gave it another hour before turning around, which was also the signal for all the other ships to head back to Earth.
40 minutes past midnight, so very early on 6 January, Royal Navy was the first to enter Earth orbit. Now the question was would the Menace Void Ships continue pursuit once the other human ships did the same.
At 05:00 on 6 June, the American 1st Fleet was the last to enter Earth orbit. And to the relief of the planners and the leaders, the Menace kept coming. The crews of the corvettes braced themselves as the gunners down on the ground prepared their weapons.
Between 09:00 and 11:00, the human ships acquired the Menace ships on their active sensors and could confirm that the battleships were 10,982 tons and the frigates were 4,777 tons. Combined, the Menace Void Ships massed 55,403 tons.
CONSTRUCTION FACILITIES DETECTED...
DESTROY...
ACTIVATE BOARDING UNITS...
DESTROY...
At 13:07 The Menace Void Ships passed inside Lunar orbit and kept coming towards the human ships. They were still too far to be shot at.
At 13:08 the human ships re-engaged their engines and headed towards Luna, currently on the other side from Earth in regards to the Menace.
They had left it too late.
However, even for the Martians, the range was extreme. Spears of concentrated light missed their targets in all but one case - the unlucky ship being
HMS Aconite. Yet the long-range also dissipated most of the destructive potential of the laser beam, only knocking out an engine on the Vanguard-class, instead of outright destroying it.
At 13:09
SMS Agate took a hit that destroyed the Troop Transport Bay on it. Luckily it was empty. The powers with transports had gambled that with their engines turned off and never having left Earth, the Menace would overlook them. Clearly this was not the case. In a hurry, they were ordered to depart for Luna as well but that would take time - time that they did not have. First to go was
HMS Avenger, quickly followed by
HMS Bachaquero. Then the Germans felt laser fire as
SMS Abalone and
SMS Amber exploded. They were merely the first as transport after transport disintegrated.
Not that the Martians focused only on the transports -
HMS Acacia was stabbed lethally by two beams, cutting the little corvette into three pieces.
HMS Aconite, already damaged, turned into an expanding cloud of debris, as did
HMS Alisma and
HMS Battler.
AT 13:10 the Russians got their first share of the mayhem as one of their Kirov-class transports was blasted away together with the Austrian corvette
SMS Graz and the French
Acteé. More ships followed as the humans had to take the beating, in order to lure the Menace closer and closer.
Then the ground batteries opened fire and a rainbow of colors appeared in the skies as the Martian ships were struck by a multitude of different weapons. The corvettes turned around to return to Earth to bring their weapons to bear. The Martians showed no hesitation as their ships curved towards humans. The maelstrom of fire became impossible to follow as forces never before witnessed by humans were brought into play. Human ships were popping left and right while the Menace burst into them, hulls glowing from laser and plasma as kinetic shells bombarded them - yet they were shrugging the incoming fire off.
The situation was becoming truly grim as the number of corvettes was rapidly going down when, finally, the Martian battleship came to a halt. Ecstatic human gunners kept pouring fire on it and mere seconds later it exploded. Humanity had gained its first battle victory in space! The battle raged on with every second seeing a corvette pierced by a laser beam as the casualties kept climbing but the tide had been turned. One by one, the frigates were battered into silent husks.
But the Menace had one more ace up their sleeve. In the middle of the maelstrom,
Achille Papa sent a panicked telegram to Rome announcing Martian assault drones breaking in through a hole in the hull. Admiral Finzi had wondered why his ships had been spared and now he had his answer.
Then there was only the second battleship left. It was still heading straight towards the British shipyards when the combined firepower of the surviving corvettes and the Earth batteries finally blasted it apart.
In a mere three minutes, human destiny was changed. But the battle wasn't over.
Agostino Bertani reported that Martians had gained access. Then
Alabarda did the same and finally
Airone. Martians had mixed Heavy Assault Drones with the more common Assault Drones but luckily only on two ships and only one each. The other ships were powerless, watching the events unfolding - with nothing else to do, they started the process of collecting life pods.
However, the descendants of the Roman Legions would not give up without a fight! With the tenacity that had made the Bersaglieri famous, the Italian crews fought back. First
Airone was declared clear of enemies, then the other two. But on
Achille Papa, the presence of a Heavy Assault Drone meant doom for the crew. Ground batteries were ready and ripple-fired rail guns, particle beams, and plasma carronades. The badly damaged corvette was engulfed in fire and came apart near instantaneously.
The battle was over and the Grand Alliance was victorious. The cost had been heavy: k.u.k Raummarine and La Royale had been completely wiped out. US Space Force had only
USS Albert T Harris intact with three badly damaged corvettes in need of shipyard repairs. Regia Marina had four damaged corvettes. Carskiy Mezhgalaktischeskiy Flot had 18 corvettes left though it had lost all of its transports. Royal Navy had twelve intact and one damaged corvette and the Kaiserliche Raummarine had six.
The USA decided to scrap their corvettes as the design had proven quite ineffective. The other powers repaired theirs by the end of February, aside from
HMS Amaranthus that was so badly damaged it would take months longer to fix it up.
Meanwhile, the Grand Alliance would need to meet again. There were still numerous objects in Martian orbit, two of which had very strong sensors on them. And the human fleets were gutted. A new plan was needed, something that would take the fight against the Martian Menace.
