That's a huge battle, well done. Wonder why they didn't group up their ships properly.

I wondered that as well.  I would have beat them no matter what, I think, but if they had unified their groups it would have been harder, especially since some of the ships were anti-missile escorts. 

July 20, 2153
A survey ship operating in the Phi Arietis system, adjacent to the 111 Virginis system, detects eight Hive Fleet Kraken ships in close proximity to a comet that was the target of the survey ship.  There are two Mors class escorts, and six new 15,432 ton ships designated as the Camazolz class.  The survey ship immediately turns away and runs for the jump point back to 111 Virginis, but fortunately the hive ships have no interest in fighting and they too turn to run. 

July 25, 2153
A long-range survey ship jumps into the 111 Virginis system from Phi Arietis and sends off a contact warning to the courier network ship on the 111 Virginis to Sigma Eridani jump point.  Once that ship received the message, it jumped out and then returned a few minutes later, after delivering the message to the next ship in the chain.  The message would then be passed back up the chain first to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet, and then to fleet HQ on Terra in a matter of hours.  Admiral Calligaris by then was in the 55 Bootis system headed home.  Because the hive ships didn’t attack the survey ship, she decided to continue home rather than detaching any of her ships, which were badly in need of overhauls. 

July 26, 2153
A group of four survey ships were assembled on the jump point in the 111 Virginis system that led to the Phi Arietis system.  They were waiting for the remaining two ships of their squadron when the eight Hive Fleet Kraken ships that had caused them to abandon the Phi Arietis system jumped into 111 Virginis, leaving them at point blank range of the two Mors class escorts that were accompanying the six other hive ships.  The survey ships immediately sent off a contact report, while the sensor buoy sitting just off the jump point sent off a contact report to the rest of the system. 

Once the survey ships jumped out, the hive ships broke into two groups, neither of which seemed to be headed anywhere in particular. 

August 22, 2153
The 1st Expeditionary Fleet has returned to Terra to honors and acclaim after destroying or scattering Hive Fleet Kraken.  The fleet’s ships have gone into a much-needed overhaul cycle, while the navy begins planning its next move to pacify the frontier. 

September 13, 2153
A survey ship operating in the Xi Bootis system, on the Hive Fleet Kraken frontier, two jumps beyond 111 Virginis, came under fire when approaching the third planet of the secondary star of the system.  The ship was rapidly destroyed by ground fire from Reaper batteries on the planetary surface, having barely enough time to get a warning out to the other ships in the system.  The other survey ships in the system immediately turned for the jump point out of the system. 

The destruction of the survey ship is alarming, for obvious reasons, but when news reaches Terra it will infuriate the admiralty.  After the initial contact with the Reapers, the Admiralty had instituted a requirement for all survey ships to probe planets with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere with automated sensor probes, and all survey ships had been refitted to allow them to do just that.  For some reason the survey ship in the Xi Bootis system failed to perform that step before approaching the planet. 

Xi Bootis system
Primary: G8-V Yellow Star
2xTerrestrial – one has a thin C02-Nitrogen atmosphere, the other is Venusian.
3xDwarf
1xSuper Jovian with 23 moons

Secondary: K4-V Orange star
5xTerrestrial with 4 moons, 2x Venusian, 1 with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere
1xDwarf with 2 moons
2xGas Giants with 49 moons

September 25, 2153
A survey ship from the 1st LR Survey Group jumps into the 111 Virginis system and dispatches a Reaper Contact report to the courier network ship on the jump point back to the Empire.  The report will reach Terra in nineteen hours. 

September 26, 2153
The Reaper contact report arrives on Terra.  In response, the Imperial Fleet begins organizing an expedition to Xi Bootis system, and requests Marine and Army support. 

The 1st Expeditionary Fleet is still in overhaul, so the ships will have to be drawn from the system defense fleet.  After much wrangling, the Xi Bootis Expeditionary Fleet will consist of 2xCVA, 3xBC, 4xDD, 5xDDG, 3xDDE, 60xStrikefighter, 4xAegis sensor fighters.  Support units will join the fleet en route. 

The ground contingent will consist of the 5th, 3rd, and 29th Marine Divisions, over five hundred thousand tons of ground force, bolstered by artillery and heavy armor attachments.  The ground transports will have to follow behind the fleet, as they will take time to load and are slower than the fleet’s warships. 

October 6, 2153
The ill-fated 1st LR Survey Group jumps into the 63 Hydrae system, adjacent to the 111 Virginis system, to probe the two jump points detected by an earlier survey.  Shortly after jumping into the system, they come under fire from the two Mors class ships detected earlier, last seen in 111 Virginis.  The survey ships run from the jump point as they will not be able to jump out for some time. 

It soon becomes clear that the hive ships are running from the jump point as well, so the survey ships turn back to jump back to the 111 Virginis system, all except for the lead ship which had lost its jump drive when it was targeted entering the system. 

October 25, 2153
The Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force has arrived in the 111 Virginis system and refueled from a waiting tanker group.  With that complete, Commodore Gabehart orders his force to proceed to the jump point to 63 Hydrae to determine if the Hive Fleet Kraken ships that attacked the survey group are still present.   

October 26, 2153
The Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force arrives at its assembly point two million kilometers from the jump point.  There is no sign of the hive ships, so Commodore Gabehart orders his force to divide into two groups.  His two assault carriers will jump through to the far side of the jump point, while his battlecruisers and destroyers will wait on this side of the jump point.  His DDG’s and DDE’s will wait at the assembly point. 

When the two assault carriers jump through to the 63 Hydrae system, they find the eight hive ships sitting just off of the jump point.  The assault carriers materialized 350,000 kilometers from the jump point, so they are just within range of their lasers.  The human ships turn towards the hive ships and begin moving back towards them and the jump point.  As expected, the hive ships run to the jump point and jump to the 111 Virginis system.  Right into the sights of three battlecruisers and four destroyers. 

The Terran warships gutted the Mors class escorts as they came through the jump point, and then turned their fire on the Camazotz class ships, which were clearly civilian ships of some sort, as they had never been observed to fire on any human ship.  Although they carried significant armor, all six Camazotz ships were destroyed in short order.  The fleet reassembled and then set course for the jump point to the 100 Ceti system. 

November 15, 2153
A survey ship working in the EQ Pegasi system discovers a ruined colony on the only planet of the system, a terrestrial world with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, a little hot but otherwise ready for colonization without any terraforming.  EQ Pegasi is on the Hive Fleet Kraken frontier, three jumps from 111 Virginis.  This planet was probed for Reaper presence before the survey ship came near, and this time no Reapers were found, in spite of the ruins. 

November 24, 2153
The Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force has reached its observation point five million kilometers from Xi Bootis B-III.  The ship’s sensors detect a ground force present on the planet, but no ships.  After observing for a short time, Commodore Gabehart orders his force to close to 1,000,000 kilometer’s range. 

When the Terran ships reach one million kilometers, their sensors reveal the presence of an active sensor on the planet, but no additional information.  Commodore Gabehart orders his assault carriers and his battlecruisers to move to just within laser range of the planet, leaving behind his carriers and destroyers to wait out of range. 

When the big Terran ships reach firing range they begin bombarding the ground force targets with their heavy lasers.  At that range their chance of hitting anything is small, so Commodore Gabehart orders his ships to close to 200,000 kilometers range.  Reaper STO units begin firing on the oncoming ships as they close, and the Eternal Crusader begins taking damage to her shields.  However, the unmasking of the STO’s allows the Terran units to target them instead of random ground units.  While their chance of hitting has increase, Commodore Gabehart is still unhappy with their low accuracy, so he orders his ships to close to 100,000 kilometers. 

The Terran ships continue to fire as they close, but their accuracy is still lacking.  As no new STO’s have opened fire, Commodore Gabehart orders his ships to close to point blank range.  The STO’s opened up with everything they had as the Terran ships closed, including numerous gauss cannon point defense units, but they were barely able to scratch the shields of the big assault carriers.  The five Terran capital ships hovered over the planet and poured fire into the Reaper base, pounding it mercilessly with continuous laser fire.  It took several minutes of laser bombardment to eliminate the STO’s, but it was a forgone conclusion.  The Eternal Crusader’s shields never dropped below 95% during the bombardment, although the three battlecruisers reduced their maintenance stocks to an average of 79% before they were done.  With the threat eliminated, Commodore Gabehart sent a message to the courier at the jump point to signal the ground forces that the way was clear.  It would still take some time for them to arrive, as their transports were much slower than the fleet’s warships.  In the meantime, the survey command would be free to finish their survey of the system. 

Later that same day, a survey ship operating in the EQ Pegasi system (Hive Fleet Kraken frontier), probed a new jump point and discovered that it linked to a known system several jumps from Chi Draconis in the Leviathan frontier. 

November 29, 2153
Another survey ship working in the EQ Pegasi system probes another new jump point and finds itself in the 6 Centauri system, which is located on the frontier beyond Shield Base in the Monoceri system. 

December 11, 2153
The 1st Expeditionary Fleet’s ships have completed their overhauls and been transferred to Sol System Command.  With the ships freed up, a new expeditionary unit is put together to purge the remaining Hive Fleet Leviathan ships beyond Omicron Tucanae.  The new force is designated as the Hive Fleet Leviathan Expeditionary Force, and it consists of one dreadnought, one battleship, two battlecruisers, four missile cruisers, five missile destroyers, two destroyers, four destroyer escorts, a scout, and the dreadnought’s embarked fighters.    The force departs on this date, bound for the forward base in the Chi Draconis system. 

January 5, 2154
A survey ship working in the Kappa Ceti system, in the Hive Fleet Kraken frontier, three jumps from 111 Virginis system, had launched a sensor drone towards the system’s third planet some time ago.  At 1659 hours, the sensor drone bus reached the third planet, but before it could deploy its sensor buoy it was destroyed by a nuclear detonation. 

With the destruction of the sensor drone, the survey ship jumps out to report the contact. 

January 10, 2154
The 2nd LR Survey Group, working in the Xi Bootis system after it was cleared by the navy, discovers an ancient construct and ruins on the planet occupied by the Reapers.  In addition, the planet has massive deposits of eight TN resources at good availability levels, including gallicite, stocks of which have been shrinking. 

January 16,2 154
The contact report concerning possible Reaper presence in the Kappa Ceti system reaches the Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force.  As the ground force is still over two and a half months away, Commodore Gabehart decides to probe Kappa Ceti to determine the extent of the problem.  His expeditionary force sets out for Kappa Ceti on this date. 

February 7, 2154
Survey ships operating in the GJ 2097 system, on the Hive Fleet Kraken frontier, two jumps beyond 111 Virginis, discover a previously unknown alien race on the system’s second planet when the sensor bus deployed by one of the survey ships entered orbit of the planet and deployed its buoy.  The buoy immediately detected a small, outpost sized alien population on the planet, which was terrestrial and boasted an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and temperate climate.  The survey ships began their survey effort while a single ship returned to 111 Virginis to report the contact. 

February 24, 2154
The Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force had entered the Kappa Ceti system, location of the presumed Reaper infestation, several days ago and was headed inwards, towards the third planet.  It was still 2.3 days away when the fleet scout assigned to the expeditionary force detected a Reaper Charlie class ship 235 mkm’s ahead of the Terran ships.  The Charlie class had been encountered before, had a known speed of 8,03 km/s, and although its purpose was unknown it was known to mount a decoy missile launcher.  As the Reaper ship was faster than the Terran ships it could evade the expeditionary force, but it couldn’t run from the Terran fighters.  Commodore Gabehart ordered his force to continue on course towards the planet, curious what the Reaper ship would do. 

After closing for a bit, the Reaper ship turned and started running ahead of the Terran force.  Commodore Gabehart, after consulting with his staff, orders his assault carriers to launch their fighters and destroy the Reaper ship before it can join with other ships at the target.  Shortly after the fighters move away the Reaper ship turns back towards the Terran force and begins closing.  Shortly after that it turns and begins running again. 

At 0149 hours on the 25th, twelve of the sixty fighters launch their Sparrow IIb missiles at 2,000,000 million kilometers range, for a total of ninety-six missiles.  The missiles take forty-five seconds to reach their target and completely overwhelm it, destroying the Charlie in the first pass.  The fighters return to their carriers to rearm. 

Five hours later, when the fleet reached 1.3 billion kilometers from the third planet, the scout’s sensors detected a Reaper fleet closing on the Terran force.  The fleet consisted of six ships, four Deltas, an India, and a new class designated as the Ability class.  Deltas were 26,089 ton offensive missile launching ships, the India was a 17,399 ton defensive missile launching ship, and the Ability was 17,370 tons but otherwise unknown.  The Reaper fleet was just under the maximum range of the Terran scout’s sensors, 400 million kilometers, and closing at 5,333 km/s, which was fortunately below the Terran fleet’s speed of 7,500 km/s.  Once again Commodore Gabehart orders his fighters to launch. 

The sixty Eagle strike fighters raced away from the Terran expeditionary force at their maximum speed of 19,289 km/s while the expeditionary force came to a halt behind them.  When the fighters reached the limit of their escorting Aegis sensor fighter’s active sensors, two additional contacts appeared in close proximity to the Ability class unit, which was leading the other five units by 9.5 mkm’s.  The two new units were Golf class ships, each 8,689 tons and known to mount gauss cannons.  As the fighter’s primary target was the four Delta class ships, the strike commander, Lt. Commander Leota Stach ordered her fighters to detour around the lead force. 

The Terran fighters turned and began moving to the side, while the Reaper ships continued on their course towards the Terran ships.  Once the fighters reached their waypoint seven mkm’s to the side of the Reaper’s course they waited for the Reaper fleet to pass.  Shortly after reaching their waypoint three new contacts appeared trailing eight million kilometers behind the main force, all Foxtrot class ships.  Foxtrots are 8,691 ton ships with heavy particle beam weaponry, and are dangerous close-in combatants. 

One minute later the Reaper fleet grew again, as a single Golf class escort appeared with the main force and two Golf’s appeared with the trailing Foxtrot units.  Lt. Commander Stach waits another eight minutes and then orders her fighters to begin their attack run on the main Reaper force.  The Terran fighters close and the Reaper ships continue on their course until the fighters reach fifteen million kilometers, at which time the Reaper main group and the trailing force turns towards the fighters, while the lead group continues on towards the Expeditionary force. 

Eight minutes later, at near their maximum range of three million kilometers, the Terran fighters launch their missiles.  The Strike planners had no idea what the Reaper’s missile capability would be against the fighters, so they had decided on the maximum range strike as the safest approach.  The sixty fighters concentrated all of their missiles on the four Delta class offensive missile units, as they were the primary threat to the fleet.  Here, the strike planners had been divided.  Previous experience had shown that it was a better allocation of their missiles to eliminate anti-missile escorts first, allowing a later strike to finish off the unprotected offensive ships, but the bulk of the planners felt that the Sparrow IIb missiles, with their improved ECCM and ATG, along with their heavier warheads, would allow them to penetrate the Reaper’s defenses and eliminate the primary targets, leaving the escorts with nothing to protect. 

The four hundred and eighty missiles raced away from the fighters, towards the Reaper force, while the fighters turned away to maintain the range.  Reaper AAM’s began intercepting the missiles 678,000 kilometers from the Reaper force.  Sixteen Sparrow IIb ASM’s were stopped short of the Reaper force by the AMM’s, and then the Terran missiles closed to attack range.  The first attack by the missiles destroyed three of the Delta’s outright, and heavily damaged the fourth.  Point defense fire only took out a relative few of the attacking missiles, but did manage to take out the few missiles that survived the first attack as they came around to attack again.  The strike was a success, with three of the Deltas destroyed and the fourth crippled and reduced to 889 km/s. 

The fighters turned back to their waypoint to the side of the Reaper fleet, and then set out for their carriers, their job done.  The long-range missile threat from the Reaper force was eliminated.  The remaining ships of the main force tried to pursue the fighters, while the lead Reaper force continued on towards the Terran expeditionary force, and the trailing group, along with the damaged Delta, turned back.    After a short period, the lead group turned back as well, followed shortly thereafter by the remnants of the main force.  Shortly after the fighters left the Reaper ship’s detection range, they all turned back towards the Terran force and began closing again, except for the crippled Delta.         

Four hours later the fighters landed on their carriers and Commodore Gabehart ordered his force to close on the oncoming Reaper force, the lead unit of which was now 180 mkm’s away and closing.  As the two forces close on each other, the Terran scout detected a Charlie class ship closing on the damaged Delta from the inner system. 

When the Reaper ships reach 72 mkm’s from the Terran force they turn away and begin running for the inner system, all except the two remaining ships of the main force, which continue to close.  At 2213 hours the India and Golf class units are 27 mkm’s from the Terran force, and Commodore Gabehart orders his DDG’s to engage the oncoming Reaper ships.  The Terran Absolution class DDG’s are armed with forty-two box launchers equipped with the Archer III ASM.  The Archer III has a speed of 35,000 km/s, second generation ECCM and ATG, a range of 30 mkm’s, and a warhead 50% more powerful than the Sparrow IIb’s carried by the fighters.  In addition, the Archer III carries two decoys to help it penetrate fleet defenses.  The lead DDG, the Amnesty, launches twenty-five Archer III ASM’s in response, targeted on the two closing Reaper warships. 

Reaper interceptor missiles began attacking the missile wave when it reached five hundred and sixty-five thousand kilometers from the Reaper force.  For the most part they expended themselves on decoys, but two missiles were destroyed by the AMM’s in the first attack.  Three more missiles were destroyed, and twenty-five of the decoys, before the missiles reached attack range.  Only two missiles penetrated the point defense fire and the ship’s decoys to hit the Golf class escort, expending themselves against the ship’s shields.  Eight missiles survived to hit the India class ship’s shields, and another hit its armor but didn’t penetrate. 

For the next attack, two of the Amnesty’s sister ships launch a total of fifty missiles at the two oncoming Reaper ships at twenty-five million kilometers.  Once again, the interceptions began around 550,000 kilometers. This time the Reapers took out thirteen missiles before they reached attack range.  The India class had its shields stripped again, and took five armor hits, but none penetrated, but the Golf class took a penetrating hit that left it drifting, leaving the India to proceed on its own. 

The third attack consisted of forty Archer III ASM’s, all targeted on the India class ship.  Nineteen of the forty hit the India, stripping her shields again and getting seven penetrating hits, reducing her speed to 2,666 km/s.   

Commodore Gabehart decides that the two Reaper ships have been reduced to irrelevance and orders his fleet to close on them to beam range.  The India doggedly continues to close and managed to get several salvoes of missiles off at the Terran force before the Angel of Retribution’s heavy lasers swatted it from space.  Between the fleet’s point defense and the CVA’s heavy shields the India failed to inflict any damage.  The Terran force set its course for the planet again.  One shot with one of the Angel of Retribution’s 30cm soft X-ray lasers took the crippled Golf class out as the force advanced on the planet. 

In the meantime, the two other Reaper squadrons had turned and were closing on the Terran force, but later turned away. 

February 26, 2154
At 1234 hours, the Terran force picked up a missile salvo of twenty-six missiles closing on their position, apparently launched from the crippled Delta which was now 27 mkm’s away.  Commodore Gabehart decided to avoid wasting any more missiles on the Delta and ride out the attack.  The three DDE’s escorting the capital ships moved forward and prepared to engage, while the rest of the ships ready their point defense weapons. 

The Reaper missiles streaked towards the oncoming Terran ships at 30,085 km/s, while the Delta still limped along at 889 km/s, 30 mkm’s from the Terran fleet and closing.  When the incoming missiles reached three million kilometers AMM’s began racing away from the DDE’s.  The Terran AMM’s were almost three times as fast as the incoming missiles, and they sped away from their DDE’s as if eager to reach their targets.  A second salvo of fifteen AMM’s was launched ten seconds later, followed shortly by a third. 

The first wave of AMM’s only got three hits, two of which were decoys.  The second got seven hits, but again only one was a real missile.  A steady stream of AMM’s raced away from the defending DDE’s as the Reaper missile wave closed, stripping away the decoys.  In the meantime, a second missile wave had appeared on the Terran ship’s sensors, but this missile wave was only composed of eleven missiles. 

By the time the incoming missile salvo reached laser range of the Terran force, it was reduced to seven missiles.  Four more missiles were destroyed by the AMM’s, one more was taken out by last ditch laser fire, and two hit the armor of the DD Wei Zhao, causing minor damage to its armor belt. 

The DDE’s began launching again when the second missile salvo reached three mkm’s range.  Only one missile from the second wave got close, but it was finally shot down by an AMM just 80,000 kilometers short of the fleet.  Space was clear around the expeditionary force again. 

The Terran force chased down the slowly fleeing Delta, and once within range of its lasers, took out the Reaper ship with a single shot from the Angel of Retribution’s spinal laser. 

The next closest group of ships was the Ability class cruiser and its two Golf class escorts.  They were running for the planet at 5,340 km/s, and were sixty-two million kilometers from the expeditionary force.  The other group, composed of three Foxtrots and two Golf’s, was also headed towards the planet and was twenty-four million kilometers farther away than the first group.  Commodore Gabehart ordered his ships to chase them down. 

At 1732 hours the fleet scout attached to the expeditionary force detected two Alpha’s and two Bravo class units orbiting the third planet.  These have been encountered before, and are immobile bases used to protect Reaper anchorages.  The Bravos carry numerous small missile launchers, while the Alphas are suspected to be point defense bases, and possibly beam combatants.  Commodore Gabehart launches his fighters and orders them to close on the suspected Reaper base on the third planet while the expeditionary force continues to chase the Reaper ships. 

February 28, 2154, 0108 hours
The fighters are now within range of the sensors on the Aegis sensor fighters, and they pick up twelve Golf class and a Charlie orbiting the planet, along with the four bases.  The Golf class are small missile combatants, while the Charlie is a beam combatant. 

0144 hours
The fighters are now in their launch position, 1.75 mkm’s from the planet.  The sixty Eagle fighters launch their missiles, eight Sparrow IIb ASM’s each, targeting the four bases and the Golf class fast missile ships.  Twenty seconds later interceptions start, and sixty-eight missiles are destroyed short of the planet.  One hundred and twenty-two are destroyed by point defense fire, and two hundred and fifty-eight hit their targets.  Eight Golf class ships are destroyed outright, and the other four suffered several penetrating hits each.  The missiles were less successful against the bases.  All four bases carried decoy missiles, and succeeded in decoying eighty-six missiles.  Two of the bases suffered two penetrating hits, one suffered one penetrating hit, and one escaped unscathed.  Their missiles expended, the Terran fighters turned back towards their carriers to rearm. 

As the chase grinds on, the closer Reaper force suddenly turned towards the Terran expeditionary force and begins closing.  It quickly turns away again, but the range dropped precipitously for a period of time. 

At 0703 hours the Terran ships drew into range of their lasers and opened fire, with the CVA’s and the BC’s focusing on the Ability class, while the DD’s concentrated on the two Golf class units.  The first hits were low powered and few in number, due to the range, but as the range dropped their accuracy increased, as did the power of the lasers.  When the Terran ships reached 237,000 kilometers the fleeing Reaper ships began returning fire, hitting the Angel of Retribution with several energy weapons that barely scratched her shields. 

The next laser salvo from the Terran ships dropped the Ability’s shields and scored hits on her armor, several of which penetrated.  After several more lasers penetrated her armor, the Ability’s speed began dropping.  With the Ability reduced to 4,000 km/s, the two Golf class units turned back towards the Terran ships and suddenly raced towards them, closing rapidly.  Commodore Gabehart ordered his turreted weapons to focus on the Golf’s, along with the BC’s plasma cannons, which had so far remained silent, to augment the destroyer’s firepower. 

The plasma cannon fire, along with the increased laser fire, stripped the Golf’s remaining shields and shredded their armor, with one suffering a penetrating hit.  The next salvo, at 73,000 kilometers, holed both Golfs, leaving one drifting and the other barely underway.  Two more salvoes and the Golf’s were reduced to wrecks, leaving only the Ability.  One more round of fire from the capital ship’s heavy lasers put paid to the Ability, which had been vainly trying to close the distance. 

With the second group of Reaper ships eliminated, Commodore Gabehart ordered his force to run down the third and last mobile force. 

At 1047 hours the Terran expeditionary force had closed to twenty-eight million kilometers from the third planet and detects a ground force on the planet’s surface.  The third mobile force is now nine million kilometers from the advancing Terran force.  Commodore Gabehart ordered his DDG’s to launch a strike with their remaining Archer III ASM’s against the bases in orbit over the planet.  Seconds later the three DDG’s with missiles left were wreathed in fire and smoke as ninety-five ASM’s left their launchers bound for the planet.  Five minutes later the missiles raced past the last Reaper mobile force on their way to the planet, passing 320,000 kilometers from the ships.  Forty seconds later the active sensors on the missiles picked up nine Reaper missiles out-bound, headed for the fleet. 

As the Reaper missiles approached the fleet the DDE’s went into action again, spewing AMM’s ahead of the capital ships.  Once again, the missiles were stopped short of the fleet.  Reaper AMM’s reduced the Terran missile wave to fifty-six as they closed, and then point defense took a massive toll of the large Terran missiles, leaving only nineteen to hit the two Bravo class bases, neither of which lost their shields. 

Not wishing to face massive waves of small missiles from the two Bravo class bases, Commodore Gabehart authorizes one more strike by the fighters with the last of the expeditionary force’s fighter missiles.  The fighters launch and streak towards the planet shortly thereafter. 

Even as the fighters race towards the planet and its orbiting bases, the third mobile group turns back towards the Terran expeditionary force and races towards it, closing rapidly.  Commodore Gabehart assigns each of his capital ships to target each of the oncoming Reaper small ships, with his destroyers each picking a target as well. 

As the two groups closed the Reaper ships turned away while still out of range, forcing the Terrans into a chase again.  In the meantime, the fighters had reached their launch point and sent their missiles towards the orbiting bases.  All of the fighter’s missiles were targeted on the two Bravo class missile bases, in an attempt to overwhelm them.    As before the Reaper AMM’s began intercepting the fighter’s missiles short of their target, and then a veritable storm of point defense fire tore massive holes in the missile wave, but with two hundred and forty missiles targeted on the two bases there was just no way the Reapers could stop all of them, and the two missile bases disappeared in a series of massive explosions, leaving two point defense bases, a Charlie class beam combatant, and four Golf class escorts orbiting the planet. 

Five minutes later the Terran expeditionary force drew into range of the mobile group and opened fire on the Reaper combatants.  As before the hits were few and low power at long range, serving only to attrit the Reaper ship’s shields, but they increased in power and number as the range dropped.  When the range reached 200,000 kilometers the Terran ships turned to maintain the range just as their fire took down one of the Reaper ship’s shields.  So far, the Reaper ships had not got a shot off at the Terran fleet.  Soon after that the Terran lasers began penetrating the Reaper ship’s armor. 

One by one the Reaper ships were destroyed by the sustained laser fire.  One managed to get close enough to fire its particle lance at a Terran destroyer.  Fortunately, this was a Hero Flight IVd type destroyer, with the latest shields.  The Reaper particle beam took the DD’s shields down, but only scratched her armor.  It took time for the Terran ships to reduce the Reapers to scrap, but Commodore Gabehart was perfectly willing to take the time to do the job right. 

When the last Reaper ship blew up under sustained laser fire, Commodore Gabehart ordered his fleet forward, towards the planet and its remaining defenders.  Fourteen minutes later the fleet came to rest three million kilometers from the planet. 

After holding station for a short period of time, Commodore Gabehart ordered the fleet forward.  The fleet’s sensors still showed a considerable ground force contact on the planet, two Alpha class point defense bases, a Charlie class beam cruiser, and four Golf class small missile ships.  The priority target for the Terran ships would be the two point defense bases, and then the Charlie class cruiser. 

As before, the Terran ships opened fire when they came into range, at 384,000 kilometers, but this time they were all targeting the same Alpha class base.  The hits started becoming more powerful, and more common, as the fleet closed, but Commodore Gabehart ordered them to come to a halt at 300,000 kilometers.  At this range the Terran ships could engage with all of their lasers, and it appeared that the Reapers could not reach them. 

Unfortunately, the Terran weapons weren’t getting enough hits or doing enough damage to get through the Reaper’s shield in a reasonable amount of time, so Commodore Gabehart ordered his ships to close to 250,000 kilometers, and then 200,000 when that didn’t increase their effectiveness enough.  At 212,000 kilometers range the Angel of Retribution and the Eternal Crusader were attacked by twelve powerful ground-based particle weapons each, but fortunately most missed and the Eternal Crusader only took one hit to her shields.  The Terran ships were apparently still too far out to determine which ground units were attacking his ships, so Commodore Gabehart ordered his ships to move back to 250,000 kilometers and to bombard the enemy fleet from there.  Even as the Terran ships moved away, they finally penetrated their target’s shields.  They almost immediately began getting penetrating hits on the base.  It didn’t take long for the base to succumb to the sustained laser fire, at which time the Terran ships shifted to target the second Alpha class unit. 

The long-range laser bombardment soon wore through the base’s shields, and then its armor.  Soon it joined its fellow base as wreckage orbiting the planet.  The fleet then shifted fire to the Charlie class cruiser, and then took out the Golf’s one by one.  Once they were gone, the fleet shifted fire to the STO’s that had revealed themselves. 

After several minutes pounding the planet, Commodore Gabehart called a halt to the bombardment.  The chances of hitting the STO’s was too small, and the wear and tear on his ships was beginning to be a problem.  They had destroyed all of the Reaper mobile forces in the system, and the planet lay open to invasion when the ground forces arrived.  It was time to withdraw.  The Terran expeditionary force turned towards the jump point out of the system, on course to rejoin the tankers and supply ships in the 111 Virginis system. 

What an elusive enemy, leaving bread crumbs here and there.

The swarms are proving to be very frustrating to deal with.  They aren't tied to planets or populations, which gives them the ability to set up shop in any system.  In addition, they don't seem to concentrate all of their forces in one place, which makes eliminating them difficult.  A challenge!

Have you ever, at any point in time, even briefly considered doing a campaign setting that won't end up killing you from excessive micromanagement and baroque levels of detail? I'm not at all complaining, mind you, more people should put half as much thought into their ground force organizations, but I do worry for your continued health and sanity sometimes. 

What an elusive enemy, leaving bread crumbs here and there.