Drums of War - Part 3
Earth Lord Naomi Aktar, 4th of her rank and senior officer of the Syndicate Battle Fleet stood projecting a false calm on the bridge of the CA-Cod as the task force prepared to make the same transit the Venusians had. Her single greatest concern was that the Venusians wouldn't wait for them. The Syndicate needed this opportunity to prove their enhanced military power, and also needed to see the Venusians in action to confirm their optimism wasn't unfounded.
"All Fleets prepare for transit."
~~~~~[August 17, 2083, 19:18]~~~~~~~~
"Ma'am, Sensors online. No enemy presence, but there are local wrecks, 16 close. And the Venusians have begun hailing us. They seem glad to see us, ma'am."
Naomi spent a set of heartbeats looking at the projected sensor data. The Venusians had taken the jump point with 33% losses, and yet they had apparently destroyed tonnage in excess of her own fleet.
"Com, put them through. It looks like we missed quite the party."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few minutes later Demon Prince Lengokrab closed the connection with a sly smile.
"Fleet, forward 2,500 k.m.s." He ordered the subcommands of his war counsel. "With Syndicate reinforcements we are back to full strength. With the gate behind us only vitory remains, forward!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Back on Gallenshu IV...]
Amber alarm lights flooded the slow command bunker of Military command with frantic activity. By the time the senior commander, Blastcoal, appeared the early cheers of destruction had already faded to angry depression. The Unmentionables had returned. In Force. The Outer guard was dead, but kills had been made. Already weakened, the situation could be salvaged with just a little more force.
"All hands! Second fleet launch! Third fleet launch! And Fourth! Send them all!"
~~~~~[4 days and 750m km latter...]~~~~~~~~
"Prince! Syndicate hailing on line 1. Priority Critical."
Lengokrab raised one eyebrow from his seat in the officer galley. For almost four days the fleet had been growing restless as they pressed inward to make war one Gallenshu home world. "Put the human on speaker. If critical it be then it can't wait for the bridge."
[N] "Prince Lengokrab. Our sensors detected an incoming fleet a few minutes ago. 11 contacts. 7300 tons. Unidentified. Closing speed of 3938. 50 million kilometers dead ahead. Are they Gallenshu?"
Lengokrab sat stunned in surprise for an instant, then wondered why he was. The Syndicate sensors may have been smaller, but they used a resolution at least five times as large. Intelligence estimated they had a 50%-100% detection range advantage. Still at that speed and distance they had only... call it 15 million km divided by 5 k/s for ... about an hour before the Gallenshu entered Venusian detection range. No rush.
[L] "Probably. Fire at will."
[N] "We'll fire on your mark to be certain of identity." The Syndicate captain deferred.
[L] "Then first blood is ours. Again. We'll fire when they close to 30 million."
[N] "Very well. Syndicate Out."
The call completed Lengokrab paged the bridge.
"Bridge, up and about! The Gallenshu are ahead and should be entering detection range within the hour. Sound a yellow alert in... 30 minutes. Upgrade to red when contact is made." Notice made the Venusian prince turned back to his food. 30 minutes to finish eating, rehearse a rousing speech, and get to the bridge. No rush.
~~~[August 21, 16:01][72 minutes after Syndicate detection]~~~~~~
"Venusian missiles launch detected! 16 salvos of 8 size 4" came the expected all from Sensors when the Gallenshu, mockingly nicknamed the "ClownSneazeHead" by Syndicate crew, closed to 33m km.
"All ships open fire." Naomi instantly replied before noticing the Dragons had opened fire a few million km earlier than stated. Not that it mattered. The Syndicate crew had drilled for months in general, and had calculated and recalculated all necessary equations while waiting. Within 10 seconds 3 salvos of 8 Syndicate missiles were free and chasing down the Venusian. The Venusians may have been mildly dismissive of the small Syndicate wave, but the rapid launch was worthy of admiration.
In the end, 2.5 waves of Venusian missiles were launched targeting 5 ships with 4 salvos each. 160 Hellfires in total.
The Syndicate launched 3 waves, each wave targeting a different target. 72 ASM Ship Destroy Mk2s in total.
The Syndicate missiles were faster, and quickly overcame the 10s Venusian head start to draw first blood in the 1st Joint Battle of Gallenshu. 24 missiles lanced outward with the neutonainan shaped charge warheads nearly identical to the Venusian design. Spinning into aligning, they scored nearly an 80% hit rate against the speeding clowns, shattering one thin-armored alien and crippling two more. Then the Venusian missiles arrived. Slower, but much more agile, not a one missed. Missile after missile slammed into the targets destroying every ship with just three salvos leaving the 4th overkill. 5 Ships were killed, including one weakened by the Syndicate in unplanned overlap.
The Demon Princes grinned at each other in agreement. This was much more fun than the first battle. Still, after 16 kills the supply of Hellfires were starting to run low, and the trip to Gallenshu was far from finished. Best let the Syndicate use a few missiles of their own.
[L] "Earth Lord, not too bad. Your missiles are swift. Still, I count four enemies left. What say you we split them two and two?"
[N] "A fair Split Demon Prince, and generous when your own missiles fly more numerously as the stars. Worry not for our cripple, we can finish that off as well."
Flattery complete the two sides turned to launch again when Naomi ran into an obstacle. Only 3/4 of a salvo of of Ship Destroyers remained in magazines on each missile frigate. Still, she was confident in a solution. "All fleet, launch remaining Ship Destroyers. Then commence GoldenDart firing."
The majority of the Syndicate fleet was composed of Anti-Missile Defender-class cursers, but each cruiser cared twin long-range targeting systems for offensive fire. While the SilverDart AMM was the primary magazine cargo, a healthy selection of GoldenDart ASM were also included. Those small size-1 missiles gave up the usual AMM agility to carry the fuel needed to match the range of the larger Ship Destroyers. Salvoes of 20 launched forward to sandblast bit by bit first the armor and then the internals of Gallenshu clowns into oblivion.
First there were 11. Then there were 5. Then there were none.
So far the score in ship destruction was Venus: 7. Syndicate: 4+1 assist.
~~~~~[August 22, 22:52 250m km further inward]~~~~~~
The next day it was the Venusian's turn to page the Syndicate.
[L] "I trust your fleet remains every ready for victorious slaughter?" The Prince asked warmly.
[N] "We ever are." Came a dry response to the late call. "Why?"
[L] "More Gallenshu of course! Forty-nine fast attack craft, 950 tons, 2630 kilometers a second. Just thirty-four million clicks ahead."
A strangled gasp emerged emerged from the Syndicate fleet, followed by muted orders to battle stations.
[N] "Much thanks, Prince. May our missiles fly true."
This task finished the Venusian fleet wasted no time in launching missiles. After destroying two fleet previously the Venusian battle ships were nearly depleted with only 14 missiles remaining on each. Using frailty estimates from the classified records on Venusians own proposed FAC designs it was decided that each ship should launch as salvo of 6 at different targets holding a a single full salvo of hellfire in reserve for the Gallenshu home world.
The estimates were close. Half the targets were destroyed in the distant hellfire detonations, but the rest flew on. Then the Syndicates struck.
The Syndicates may have been depleted of ShipDestroyers, but GoldenEyes were still in stock. Three waves of triple salvos of twenty raced outward once the Gallenshu attackers raced a hundred thousand km into the anti-missle sensor detection range. While quantity may have its quality, the destructiveness of the Syndicate salvos was less than the Venusian's. Only one target died. And then the Gallenshu struck.
Four million km from the front the Gallenshu reversed course, but not out of fright. Just 30 seconds later the Gallenshu succeeded in delivery as 42 size 6 Scimitar missiles streaked inward at 16,000 km/s. Naomi never needed to breath a word. Anti-missile protection was their official reason for coming, and the primary focus of the fleet. In one accord the fleet belched forth 96 SilverDart Mk2 missiles, at a 4:1 saturation ration. 10 seconds latter an additional 72 followed. Of the 24 missiles targeted by the first wave, 21 were shot down with 20 incidents of overkill. The 2nd wave accounted for 17/18 targets, once again with substantial overkill. Between one wave and the next Naomi breathed her first anti-missile command. "All ships. Adjust Fire ratio down to Three. Repeate, fire A. M. M. ration Three."
The third wave accounted for all 4 leakers with only 2 incidents of overkill. The Venusians were once more impressed. 183 Syndicate missiles had been launched in 15 seconds scoring 82 hits. Not a single Gallenshu missile managed to enter Venusian detection range, much less strike a vessel. The best hope for Gallenshu victory had died even faster than it had risen.
This left one unresolved issue: 42 fleeting Gallenshu missile boats traveling faster than the joint fleet. So of course, the Venusian Space Dragons had to chase.
"CHARGE! FULL SPEED! ALL SHIPS! LET THEM FEEL OUR SPARKS!"
[ooc]Drums of War report cut short by 6.0 release. I'll edit in the remaining three battles of the First Gallensh campaign over the next few days.[/ooc]
