Month 217, Day 3, Alliance Herzberg system
The 4th Fleet was assembled at the warp point to the Lothari home system in defensive positions. The fleet itself was located fifteen light seconds from the warp point, while fifteen fighter squadrons patrolled the warp point itself, rotating every several hours with squadrons in reserve on board the carriers.
Cho-sho Watanabe had had a difficult time during the voyage to the warp point, reconciling his feelings about the disaster on the Liawak colonies. The barbarous Lothari had killed tens of millions of Alliance citizens, merely because they didn’t want to give up what they had stolen.
The worst, at least for Watanabe, was what they had done to the survivors of the warships of the Liawak patrol group. During the clearing and rescue operations on the innermost colony, Watanabe’s marines had discovered a compound abandoned by retreating Lothari ground forces. The compound had housed the Alliance military personnel the Lothari had captured during their conquest of the system. There had been several hundred Alliance military people at the compound at one time, but by the time his marines had gotten to the camp there were only twelve left alive. The others had either been starved or tortured to death, including Sho-i Watanabe, his only daughter. According to the survivors, Sho-i Watanabe had been brave to the end, trying to defend her people from what was increasingly clear to all of them was certain doom. She was one of the first to disappear into the Lothari interrogation rooms, and she never came out. Like so many other officers and crewers. What the Lothari had done there was unforgivable, just as was what they had done to the colonies when it became clear that they couldn’t win.
Now, with his fleet stationed at the warp point, Cho-sho Watanabe forced himself to put away his feelings for his daughter and prepare his ships for what was to come. Heavy reinforcements were en route, with the Alliance 2nd Fleet due to arrive in twenty-four days. Once the 2nd arrived, with Tai-sho Skull Splitter in command, planning for the assault into the Lothari system could begin. Until then, he was to hold here and defend the exit from the Lothari system.
Cho-sho Watanabe’s 4th Fleet was composed of thirteen battlecruisers, seven heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, and nine destroyers, along with three carriers, two light carriers, a strike carrier, nine escort carriers, and thirteen corvette-scout-carriers. Watanabe would put his fleet’s crews up against any in the Alliance fleet. In particular, some of his cruisers had the most experienced crews in the fleet. Unfortunately, around two thirds of his ships were older designs, and hadn’t been upgraded to the latest designs before the current difficulties. He was very concerned about this, given the fact that the Lothari had already shown that they possessed superior technology. There was nothing he could do about it at this point, but it was something that he must keep in the forefront of his mind as he planned the defense of the warp point, should the Lothari attack.
Month 217, Day 3, Lothari Home System
Swordsman of Stars Weber looked around his bridge. Everything was prepared, there was nothing left to do but give the order. “Gunboat wave, begin transit!”
In front of his battlecruiser, gunboats began streaming through the warp point to the Hertzberg system.
Month 217, Day 3, Alliance controlled Hertzberg system
The warp point suddenly erupted in a stream of gunboats issuing forth from the central vortex. A new gunboat entered the system every third of a second or so, and by the time the stream of gunboats stopped there were over a hundred of the brutal combat craft in the Herzberg system. The fifteen squadrons of Alliance fighters patrolling the warp point immediately reacted, splitting into two groups to attack the gunboats, which had also split. Half of the gunboats had advanced a light second and a quarter from the warp point, while the other half remained on the warp point. Two furballs ensued, with the small craft tearing at each other. The Alliance fighters had the advantage, being both nimbler and, unlike the gunboats, they weren’t recovering from jump shock.
The two groups broke apart quickly, and the remaining Lothari gunboats retreated through the warp point as quickly as they came. The Lothari left behind seventy-two of their gunboats in exchange for thirty-four Alliance fighters destroyed in the brief combat.
The Alliance 4th Fleet, stationed fifteen light seconds away, has begun rushing to alert status even as the Lothari disappeared back through the warp point.
The remaining Lothari gunboats appeared in the Lothari home system and confirmed the status of the Alliance defenses, after which the assembled Lothari fleet began moving towards the warp point in assault order.
Thirty seconds after the last gunboat jumped out, Lothari battlecruisers began streaming through the warp point and into the Herzberg system. The big Lothari ships each turned after entering the system, creating a hedgehog formation on the warp point that prevented the remaining fifty-six Alliance fighters from getting into the blind spots of the entire group. The Alliance fighters raced to attack, trying to damage the Lothari ships as the main Alliance fleet tried to get to combat status. Even as the Alliance fighters raced towards the warp point, the six battlecruisers launched a total of thirty gunboats, which formed up into a group and raced away from the warp point. The Alliance fighters were faced with a choice, engage the ships on the warp point, or chase the gunboats. With the big battlecruisers right in front of them, still staggering from the transit effects, the choice was easy. The fighters raced in towards the battlecruisers, ignoring the fleeing gunboats.
The fighters were each equipped with one laser, one gun, and one close attack missile, to give them the broadest capability given the unknown type of threat they faced while patrolling the warp point. They now launched their anti-matter tipped close attack missiles at the wallowing battlecruisers, and stabbed into their armor with their lasers, while the battlecruisers fired back with their point defense and beam weapons. Each fighter squadron had enough firepower to scrub the passive defenses off of a battlecruiser, and they proceeded to do just that. Once their passives were scrubbed away, the follow-on fighter squadrons stabbed deeply within the big ships, leaving three heavily damaged, while the other three were without passive defenses. Only two fighters were destroyed as a result of the battlecruiser’s wildly inaccurate point defense and laser fire.
Lothari heavy cruisers began entering the system, and the Alliance fighters turned away from the warp point and began pursuing the Lothari gunboats, now that they had exhausted their close attack missiles. The cruisers entering the system launched another twenty-one gunboats, which all remained on the warp point, huddled around the ships remaining on the warp point. The three heavily damaged battlecruisers turned to retreat through the warp point, but wouldn’t be able to leave until they completed their turn.
The Alliance fighter patrol force outnumbered the Lothari gunboat force that it was pursuing, and was faster, but wasn’t able to catch up to the gunboats immediately. Instead of fleeing, though, the gunboats turned to engage the fighters, and launched anti-fighter missiles at one light second, just beyond the pursuing fighter’s engagement range. Sixteen fighters were hit by the missiles, reducing the Alliance combat patrol to thirty-eight fighters. Even as the fighting raged around the warp point, the main Alliance fleet, now at action stations, begin advancing towards the warp point, with a wave of just over three hundred and sixty fighters advancing ahead of it.
Three Lothari battlecruisers and three heavy cruisers entered the system and immediately launched twenty-seven gunboats, while the six heavy cruisers that entered before, now recovered from their jump shock, moved away from the warp point towards the Alliance patrol fighter group. The Lothari gunboat group that had launched its anti-fighter missiles now closed on the Alliance patrol fighter group, which obligingly closed on the gunboats. Meanwhile, the Alliance fleet and its associated fighters continued its run towards the warp point. The three most heavily damaged Lothari battlecruisers slipped out of the system and back to their home system.
The Lothari heavy cruisers closing on the Alliance fighter patrol group was the first to fire, with a trio of heavy cruisers launching forty-two anti-fighter missiles at the Alliance fighters from one and a half light seconds, taking out seventeen fighters in seconds. Before the other three heavy cruisers could fire, the gunboats and fighters began a desperate battle. In spite of being faster and more maneuverable, the fighters were now outnumbered and the result was inevitable. The Alliance fighter force was reduced to four fighters, while the Lothari gunboat group was reduced to thirteen gunboats. Seconds later the second trio of Lothari cruisers fired more AFM’s, taking out the last four Alliance fighters.
In the aftermath of the destruction of the Alliance fighter patrol group, the remaining Lothari gunboats and the six heavy cruisers that had left the warp point to engage the fighters all returned and joined the fleet there, which was bolstered by an additional six battlecruisers that had just entered. The Lothari force now numbered twelve battlecruisers, three of which had armor and shield damage, and nine heavy cruisers, along with sixty-five gunboats. Even as the Lothari force consolidated on the warp point, the Alliance fleet continued to close, and was now at ten-point-five light seconds, while its fighters were at nine-point-five light seconds. The Alliance 4th Fleet was composed of thirteen battlecruisers, seven heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, and nine destroyers. The Fleet’s carriers had remained behind at their assembly point, well out of the battle, and the Alliance fighter force was composed of three hundred and sixty-three fighters, approximately a third of which were older F0’s.
Three additional Lothari battlecruisers entered, accompanied by three heavy cruisers. The newly arrived heavy cruisers launched fourteen gunboats to join the growing swarm. The closing Alliance fleet had now entered SBM range, and the fleet’s three long-range battlecruisers began launching anti-matter tipped SBM’s at a newly arrived Lothari CA, which was still suffering from transit effects. The Alliance battlecruisers launched a total of fifteen SBM’s at the targeted cruiser, and managed to punch two missiles through the cruiser’s defenses, stripping its passive defenses and damaging its forward engine room. In response, the three Lothari battlecruisers that had entered with the first wave launched their own salvo of twelve anti-matter tipped SBM’s back at one of the Alliance long-range battlecruisers, which immediately launched an EDM to distract the incoming missiles. None of the Lothari missiles managed to get past the Alliance ship’s defenses.
The Alliance fleet continued racing towards the warp point with its fighters out in front of the advancing fleet. Six Lothari light carriers entered the system in the next wave and immediately launched forty-two gunboats to join the gunboat swarm on the warp point. The Alliance long-range battlecruisers, now at seven-point-five light seconds from the warp point, shifted their targeting to the newly arrived carriers, while the Lothari long-range battlecruisers shifted their fire to an Alliance heavy cruiser. The Alliance battlecruisers only got one hit on the carrier in spite of its transit-addled condition, and didn’t penetrate its shields. The Lothari battlecruisers also managed to slip a missile past an Alliance heavy-cruiser’s defenses, damaging its shields.
The Lothari light carriers from the sixth wave turned and exited the system after launching one hundred and eight fighters, as another six light carriers entered the system and launched a total of forty-two gunboats. The Alliance fleet continued its advance, but now the Lothari fleet, less the three damaged long-range battlecruisers, moved towards them, closing to four-point-five light seconds. The Alliance long-range battlecruisers targeted a newly arrived light carrier, while the rest of the Alliance force targeted several of the advancing Lothari heavy cruisers.
The Alliance long-range battlecruisers switched to capital missiles now that they were within range, and punched six of the anti-matter capital missiles through the faltering light carrier’s defenses, heavily damaging its engine rooms and reducing it to half speed. The two main fleets tore at each other with spinal and capital force beams and anti-matter standard missiles, and it was the Alliance fleet that came out the worst. An advanced Alliance heavy cruiser lost its passive defenses and everything forward of its first engine room, while the targeted Lothari battlecruiser merely lost two-thirds of its shields.
The Lothari carriers from the 7th wave launched their fighters and exited the system, except for the one that had been hammered by Alliance missiles. That carrier had lost half of its engine rooms and was unable to complete its turn in time to jump out. The Lothari fleet now turned back towards the warp point, running ahead of the oncoming Alliance fleet, and the assembled Lothari small craft, now numbering two hundred and sixteen fighters and one hundred and sixty-three gunboats, moved out to join the Lothari fleet. The Alliance force continued advancing, and was now four light seconds from the Lothari fleet, but the Alliance fighter force slowed and came to a halt three light seconds from the Lothari fleet and small craft, just outside of the range of the Lothari anti-fighter missiles. The damaged Alliance heavy cruiser turned away from the battle and moved away, ending seven-point-five light seconds from the Lothari fleet.
At their current range, the Lothari HET lasers were now in range, and the damage to the Alliance fleet began to increase. The Alliance fleet focused its fire on the same Lothari battlecruiser as before, but once again had trouble punching through its heavy passive defenses. In exchange, two Alliance heavy cruisers were heavily damaged and forced to turn back.
The Lothari battlecruisers continued to run ahead of the Alliance fleet, maintaining the range as best it could, while its heavy cruisers fell back towards the Alliance fleet and fighters, modulating their engines to make themselves a harder target. The Lothari heavy cruisers targeted the Alliance fighter force with AFM’s, while the Lothari battlecruisers continued to target the Alliance heavy cruisers. The Alliance fleet targeted the Lothari gunboats with standard missiles, while they concentrated their beam fire on the same Lothari BC that had been targeted over the last minute. Now, though, the older Alliance battlecruisers were within range of their standard force beams, so they could begin contributing to the carnage. The Lothari small craft force attempted to maneuver into a range at which they could launch their AFM’s without facing return fire, but failed and ended up just three quarters of a light second from the Alliance fighter force, leaving them in optimum AFM range but facing return fire from the Alliance fighter’s lasers.
The damage was mounting on both sides. The Lothari gunboat force salvoed AFM’s at the Alliance fighters, which replied with their lasers. The Alliance fighters were also targeted by the Lothari cruiser force firing AFM’s as well. The Alliance fighters split their fire between the Lothari gunboats and their fighter force, damaging both. When the explosions cleared, the Lothari had thirty-eight gunboats and ninety-six fighters left, while the Alliance had ninety-four fighters left. The Alliance fleet now had four heavy cruisers damaged and falling behind the chase, while the Lothari had four battlecruisers and two heavy cruisers damaged and falling back towards the oncoming Alliance fleet. Three of the four damaged battlecruisers were the battlecruisers damaged earlier in the battle by the Alliance patrol fighter force, which had received more damage in the most recent exchange of fire.
The Lothari, by withdrawing in front of the advancing Alliance fleet, were ensuring that they stayed out of the short ranges where the Alliance ships were most effective, but were paying a price as their damaged ships were falling towards the oncoming Alliance fleet, while the damaged Alliance ships were falling away from the retreating Lothari ships.
The Alliance fleet was surrounded by a swirling ball of small craft. The Alliance fighters focused their attention on the Lothari fighters, while two datagroups of Alliance battlecruisers unloaded their entire broadsides of force beams, plasma guns, and point defense on the gunboat force. The Lothari gunboats and fighters ignored the Alliance fighters and focused their fire on several Alliance battlecruisers, while the Lothari cruiser group continued to pour anti-fighter missile fire into the Alliance fighters. Unfortunately for the Lothari cruisers, this placed them in effective range for most of the Alliance force’s weapons, and the Alliance ships pounded six of the heavy cruisers with heavy beam fire, damaging all six and crippling one of them. The main force of Lothari battlecruisers focused their fire on one of the Alliance’s long-range battlecruisers, but failed to punch through its armor. The Lothari long-range battlecruisers targeted one of the damaged Alliance heavy cruisers that was withdrawing, doing further damage, but this freed up the main Alliance force to use its point defense against the Lothari fighters that were attacking them.
The entire Lothari gunboat force was wiped out by the intense fire from the two battlecruiser groups, but not before they managed to fire most of their lasers into Alliance battlecruisers. Most of the Lothari fighters were destroyed while they were making their attack runs on the big Alliance ships, and almost all of the remaining twenty fighters were destroyed by intense point defense fire from the fleet, leaving just one fighter to pull away from its attack run. The Alliance fighter force was reduced to just twenty-six fighters by the storm of anti-fighter missiles, leaving it a shadow of its former self. The fire from the Lothari small craft was devastating, though. The Lothari small craft focused their fire on the six battlecruisers that were targeting them, and destroyed one and crippled the other five. They then went on to damage two heavy cruisers and destroy a third.
The Lothari Fleet took the opportunity provided by the damage their small craft inflicted on the Alliance fleet to turn and attack. The Lothari cruiser force rejoined the main fleet, with the five damaged cruisers lagging slightly behind. The Alliance fleet didn’t hesitate and rushed to meet the Lothari force, with their fighters racing ahead, gaining enough on the damaged Lothari cruisers to close on them and engage with their lasers.
The next exchange of fire took place at one light second, and it was devastating. The Alliance force was reduced to five battlecruisers, two of which were close-range combatants, a heavy cruiser, six light cruisers, and nine destroyers, against a more or less intact Lothari battlecruiser force of eleven battlecruisers supported by six intact heavy cruisers. The one real advantage that the Alliance retained was their data-link jammers, which forced the Lothari ships to attack individually.
Even as the Alliance fighters lined up to fire on the lagging Lothari cruisers, the damaged cruisers began firing AFM’s at their attackers. The fighters were too close for effective fire, but the cruisers were desperate to defend themselves. In return, the three Alliance destroyer groups targeted the damaged heavy cruisers for accurate sprint missile and plasma gun fire, and the sprint missiles were armed with anti-matter warheads. Even before the Alliance fighters fired, the destroyers killed three of the five damaged cruisers. Fifteen of the fighters were taken out by AFM and point defense fire from the damaged cruisers, but enough got laser shots off to overwhelmed the two remaining cruisers, destroying both. Three of the intact Lothari cruisers overwhelmed the remaining Alliance fighters with AFM’s, destroying all of them. The other three turned their fire on the main Alliance fleet, deluging several light cruisers with sprint-mode anti-matter fire, damaging both.
The Alliance force was now in serious trouble. Its two-remaining close-engagement battlecruisers had been crippled by heavy beam fire from the Lothari battlecruiser force, and four of the six Alliance light cruisers had been damaged.
The three Alliance long-range battlecruisers continued move away, opening the range, while the remaining Alliance ships closed with the enemy fleet, seemingly seeking destruction. The combat was at point blank range, and with both side’s small craft eliminated, the two fleet’s ships could focus all of their fury on the opposing ships. The Alliance fleet was devastated. By the time the fire died down, only two destroyers were left intact. Two battlecruisers, a heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, and seven destroyers were left barely capable of movement. The rest of the fleet was gone, blown away by the Lothari battlecruisers. The Lothari ships had proved to be incredibly tough, with heavy shields and armor. Still, they had paid for what they had done to the 4th Fleet. One battlecruiser and a heavy cruiser had been destroyed outright, and another battlecruiser and a heavy cruiser had suffered heavy damage.
The end was near. The remaining Alliance ships didn’t even try to surrender. They all knew what awaited them if the enemy captured them, and they were determined to go down fighting. In an act of final defiance, the Alliance ships that had weapons targeted the two damaged Lothari ships, destroying them as they tried to retreat through the warp point. The Lothari vengeance was swift, and the remaining ships of the Alliance 4th Fleet near the warp point were destroyed.
The Alliance 4th Fleet was reduced to four battlecruisers and a bunch of empty carriers. Ten damaged battlecruisers and heavy cruisers managed to retreat from the area around the warp point and were withdrawing back towards the warp point to Liawak. Fortunately, the Lothari force seemed reluctant to leave the immediate vicinity of the warp point, and seemed satisfied with the withdrawal of the remaining Alliance ships. Both fleets had lost their entire fighter and gunboat complements, and neither seemed interested in renewing the conflict at this point.
Sho-sa F’Nor, Skull Splitter’s son and commander of the long-range battlecruiser group that had been the sole survivor of the 4th Fleet’s battle against the Lothari, was amazed that the Lothari let them go. While the Lothari force didn’t seem to have any small craft left, they had plenty of battlecruisers, and while they couldn’t catch his battlecruisers without risking burnouts, they could easily run down the damaged ships that were slowly withdrawing from the area around the warp point. Instead, they seemed content to sit on the warp point and watch them withdraw.
For now, F’Nor was keeping his battlecruisers with the damaged ships, to give them some protection should the Lothari change their minds. Not that there was much his battlegroup could do to protect them if the Lothari changed their minds about pursuing them, but he would not abandon his fellow Alliance members to the Lothari without a fight. Even now an assault shuttle was bringing Cho-sho Watanabe aboard his command ship. The 4th Fleet’s commander had been seriously wounded when his battlecruiser, which was one of the heavily damaged ships in the group F’Nor’s squadron was escorting, had been hit by Lothari beams. He would receive better treatment aboard F’Nor’s undamaged battlecruiser than on his heavily damaged command ship, and F’Nor was determined to see that his commander survived.
With the Lothari Fleet, on the warp point…
On board his command battlecruiser, Swordsman of Stars Weber watched the remnants of the Alliance fleet retreat with mixed emotions. It went against the grain to let the remnants of the enemy force retreat without chasing them down and forcing them to surrender. However, he suspected that even if he did chase them down none of the Alliance ships would surrender. The ferocity of the battle had been stunning, and not one Alliance ship had surrendered, even when their ships were wrecked and they had no weapons left. There had been remarkably few life pods found in the battleground, and his staff estimated that less than 1% of the Alliance crews of their destroyed ships had tried to save themselves. That raised some ominous questions. The Alliance was seen as weak and indecisive by the Lothari Navy, and Weber himself had espoused those views on several occasions. But while his attack had been successful, and they had destroyed the Alliance fleet that had dared approach their home system, the Alliance ships had fought bravely and tenaciously. The fact that not one had surrendered was disturbing, and gave some credibility to the rumors about the treatment of the Alliance crews that had surrendered early in the conflict. Worse, it raised serious questions about the feasibility of the Great Leader’s plan. Weber’s desire to pursue the Alliance fleet had been immaterial, because he had firm orders to remain on the warp point once the Alliance fleet was defeated. The Great Leader had a plan, and pursuing the defeated enemy was not part of that plan.
