Month 214, Day 2, Alliance Thoen System
The Thoen system is located in the Far Frontier sector, adjacent to the Dether system. The system is located along a long series of jumps that make up a secondary connection with the Alliance core systems. It contains no less than three Alliance colonies, including a D’Bringi colony that walked a fine line between loyalty to the Alliance and allegiance to the D’Bringi Empire, when that polity existed. While it wasn’t exactly clear which government the colony in the Thoen system actually supported, an argument could be made for its support of either government, and certainly no one could fault the colony’s behavior since Alliance naval ships arrived in the system, en route to the Dether system. The system held one other thing of interest. The system’s second warp point led to a closed, and undetectable, warp point in a system with a small, but growing, colony belonging to the Bjering. Although the Alliance had a trade relationship with the Bjering, and now their successor state the Confederated Sentient Races, the relationship was strained and the CSR clearly did not trust the Alliance. Therefore, the existence of this warp link had remained a state secret and had not been revealed to the Bjering.
Early in the day a group of Lothari ships materialized in Thoen’s outer system at an undiscovered closed warp point. The eighteen Lothari ships immediately set out for the inner system. They are followed by transports for ground forces, and behind them a survey group spreads out and begins surveying the system for warp points.
Month 214, Day 6, Alliance Thoen system
The invading Lothari force is detected by the Alliance colony’s sensors on this day. Communications attempts are ignored, and so emergency alerts and requests for relief are sent by the colony’s leaders via the newly re-established ICN. At this point all that is known is that there is an unknown drive field contact identified in the system, which did not enter through any of the known warp points. Alliance Fleet HQ on Rehorish Prime orders the 7th Fleet force in the Dether system, adjacent to the Thoen system, to dispatch a force of scouts to the Thoen system to identify the drive field contact. Further, the 7th Fleet is put on alert to respond to this situation should it worsen.
In response the 7th Fleet dispatches three corvette-carriers to the Thoen system to scout ahead of the main fleet, should it become necessary to move on the unknown contact.
Forty hours later, the unknown contact is now close enough to the colonies in the Thoen system that the colony’s sensors can resolve the number of ships in the contact. This prompts a second wave of contact reports to Fleet HQ and to the 7th Fleet in the Dether system, as the contact is now known to consist of eighteen ships. While this is not an overwhelming force, it is also not a lone survey ship seeking to make peaceful contact. Tai-sa G’Tak, CO of the 7th Fleet, is engaged in negotiations with the Colonial Union and cannot leave the system, but he orders his forces present in Dether to relocate to the warp point to Thoen, where he will join them before they enter the other system. In the meantime, he focuses on the negotiations, which are at a critical juncture. Helpfully, he receives communiques from the Alliance Council authorizing him to make significant concessions if it will allow him to successfully conclude a peace treaty with the Union.
The ships of the Alliance 7th Fleet currently in Dether, thirty-six warships strong, leave orbit immediately, headed for the warp point to Thoen. They leave one courier behind to be used by Tai-sa G’Tak to rejoin the fleet once negotiations are concluded.
Month 214, Day 8, Alliance Thoen system
The unknown ships close on the Alliance colonies in the inner system. When they reach fifteen light seconds from the outermost colony, the Alliance’s sensors on the planet determines that the alien fleet is composed of six battlecruisers or carriers, nine cruisers or light carriers, and three destroyers or escort carriers. The alien force divides into three groups, with one group headed towards each colony. At this point a second contact is detected headed in-system in the same general area that the original contact appeared from. By the time the ships enter orbit of the colonies, the Alliance sensors have determined that they are Lothari ships. The ships have continued to refuse contact attempts from the colonies. Reports are sent out via the ICN.
Upon receipt of these reports, Tai-sa G’Tak orders his remaining forces over the sector capital at Stahat to move to Dether to act as reinforcements or defenses, as needed.
Month 214, Day 10, Lothari controlled Thoen system
Lothari troops begin investing the Alliance colonies in the Thoen system. Transports descend on all three colonies close to simultaneously, carefully watched by the orbiting warships. Alliance home defense militia troops put up a fight but the Lothari ground troops quickly overwhelm the defenses. The last reports to reach the ICN from the colonies warn that the militia cannot hold back the Lothari invaders.
Month 214, Day 13, Lothari controlled Thoen system
Three Alliance corvette-carriers jump into the Thoen system and immediately head for the inner system and the Lothari forces arrayed there.
Month 214, Day 15: Alliance Dether system
The Alliance-Colonial Union negotiations conclude on this date. The terms are substantially in favor of the Colonial Union, but the negotiations have achieved the Alliance’s primary goal, which was to get a peace treaty at an acceptable cost, so that Alliance naval forces could be focused on the current threats to the Alliance.
The treaty re-establishes the trade relationship that existed between the Alliance and the Colonial Union before the current problems. It also grants the Colonial Union reparations for the damage done by the D’Bringi raiders, although this is mostly window dressing. In essence, the Colonial Union agreed to return the resources seized from the Dether colonies during the occupation, and the Alliance agreed to reparations in exactly the same amount, which more than compensated the Colonial Union for its economic losses during the conflict and obviated the necessity of resource transfers in the future, which was important to the Alliance given the need to build up forces to face the current threats to its territory.
In addition, the treaty modifies the neutral zone of two uninhabited systems between Dether and the Colonial Union’s Sandhurst system. Prior to the current difficulties, the two systems were de-militarized zones, however, as part of the peace treaty the Alliance grants the Danzig system, adjacent to the Sandhurst system, to the Colonial Union, and both sides agree to place a sensor and comms network in the de-militarized system remaining between the territories, as an early warning network.
Finally, the Alliance agrees to reveal the location of the closed warp point the D’Bringi raiding group used to enter the Managua system. This is a major concession, as it opens a route from the Colonial Union into the Alliance, and allows the Union to establish defenses in the Managua system to prevent further incursions. The Colonial Union’s negotiators had pressed the Alliance negotiators to reveal the locations of all Alliance contact points with the Union, including the closed warp points the Union knows exist in the systems beyond the core system of Sigma Draconis, but as desperate as the Alliance was to end the potential conflict with the Union, it was not that desperate.
With this formal end to the potential conflict in hand, the Alliance 7th Fleet, and Tai-sa G’Tak, can focus on the Lothari incursion in the Thoen system.
Month 214, Day 17, Alliance Dether System
The Alliance 7th Fleet reaches the warp point to the Thoen system at 0800 on this date. Led by its corvette-carriers, the fleet begins transiting through, secure in the knowledge that the ICN’s sensor buoys continue to report that the area around the warp point is clear. Once assembled in the system, the fleet sets out for the inner system and the Lothari invaders.
Several hours later the Lothari ships in orbit over the Thoen colonies detect the Alliance scouts sent to probe the Lothari force. The Lothari ships don’t respond as the Alliance ships close on their location. Thirty-six hours later, as the Alliance corvette-carriers attempt to get close enough to ID the Lothari ships, the Lothari squadron launches fighters. The Alliance corvette-carriers turn away, content to watch from a distance. The Lothari fighters stay close to their ships, content to let the Alliance ships hover at a distance.
Month 214, Day 21, Lothari controlled Thoen system
The Lothari invasion force in the Thoen system is concentrated over the largest colony in the system, a D’Bringi colony on the system’s innermost planet. At 0400 hours the Lothari ships detected a drive field contact seventy-two light minutes away, headed in-system. The CO of the Lothari 2nd Assault Group, Swordsman of Worlds Schmidt, immediately sent a contact report to the ship he had left at the warp point back to Lothari space and dispatched an escort carrier to probe the new contact.
Twenty hours later the escort carrier sent word that the contact consisted of thirty-six contacts of unknown size, proceeding in-system at the standard cruising speed for a cruiser. Swordsman of Worlds Schmidt was conflicted. The presumed Alliance fleet outnumbered his force by two to one. That was bad, although without knowing the composition of the force it wasn’t clear how bad. The Alliance ships were still forty-two light minutes away, and his ships were as fast as theirs, so he could order his fleet to retreat to the closed warp point they had used to enter the system. Unless the enemy had corvette sized ships, they would be unable to catch his fleet in time to determine the location of the closed warp point, although they would be close enough to ‘see’ the general location of the hidden warp point. Swordsman of Worlds Schmidt knew he couldn’t retreat, though. First, there was the troops on the ground on the three Alliance colonies. There was no way they could be loaded back onto their transports in time to evacuate, even if the transports weren’t well on their way out of the system. If he retreated, he’d be leaving the troops cut off, at the mercy of the Alliance. That was just unacceptable. As he thought, his gaze drifted, as if by accident, to the one person on his bridge not under his command. The InSec officer assigned to his ship just before departure still had not revealed his rank, but Schmidt knew why he was here. The Supreme Leader was generous to those who achieved success for the state, but punished failure without fail. The InSec officer, who was at this moment glaring at un unfortunate rating who had drawn the officer’s attention, would not hesitate to arrest and execute Schmidt in front of his crew if he thought it necessary to ‘motivate’ them, or if he thought Schmidt had failed. And retreating without a fight would certainly be interpreted as failure.
Therefore, Swordsman of Worlds Schmidt ordered his fleet forward, towards the Alliance force. He wanted to believe that he did it to protect the troops behind them, or because he thought they could win, but he feared he did it out of pure self-interest.
Thirteen hours later the two forces were one light minute apart. At that point the Alliance fleet launched its fighters, which showed up on the Lothari scanners immediately. The Lothari fleet came to a halt, but didn’t react otherwise. The Alliance fighters raced ahead of the Alliance fleet, closing on the Lothari. After a minute G’Tak ordered the Alliance fleet to come to a halt as well, to allow the fighter battle to play out.
Ten minutes passed as the Alliance fighters raced towards their target, closing to five light seconds. For all of that time the Lothari had waited for the Alliance fighters to come to them. Now, suddenly, that changed. The Lothari ships launched their own fighters, as well as a new type of small craft. This new craft was small, smaller than even an explorer class ship, but much larger than a fighter or even a pinnace.
On board the Alliance 7th Fleet, Tai-sa G’Tak and his staff tried to determine the capabilities of the new craft, but nothing like this had been seen before. The best they could come up with was that the Lothari were trying to make up for their lack of numbers by using this new, larger, small craft type. That didn’t really make sense, though, as there were over a hundred of them, and no rational fleet would devote the space and resources for that many small craft unless they added some sort of capability to the fleet. In the end, lacking information, he decided to proceed.
The two groups of fighters and small craft plunged together, short of the Lothari fleet. At the last instant, while the two forces were just three quarters of a light second apart, the Lothari small craft launched missiles at the incoming Alliance fighters. This should have been impossible, as there were no known missiles that could engage fighters, but they did it anyway. The Alliance fighters had no recourse but to take the fire, as they were out of range of their own weapons. The missiles crossed the distance between the two groups quickly, and explosions blossomed across the Alliance fighter force as the missiles homed in on their targets. When the explosions cleared Tai-sa G’Tak and his staff were stunned. In a matter of seconds over one hundred of their fighters disappeared, blown from space.
In the aftermath of the missile salvo the large Lothari small craft turned away, while the Lothari fighters, which now outnumbered the Alliance fighters, plunged to dog-fighting range. The Alliance fighters, shocked and disorganized by their losses, let the Lothari fighters come to them, allowing the ‘gunboats’ as some were calling them, to escape in the face of the fighter wave descending on them. Even worse, for the Alliance, as the Lothari fighters moved towards the Alliance fighter group, they accelerated to a speed just about 12% faster than the Alliance fighters. Later analysis would show that the Lothari fighters were armed with four weapons each, compared to the three weapons for the Alliance F1 fighters and two for the F0’s. As about half the Alliance force was composed of F0’s, this would prove to be a serious advantage for the Lothari.
The Lothari had a slight number advantage, one hundred twenty-six to one hundred nineteen, but when the two fighter groups broke apart, the Alliance had more fighters left. This was almost certainly down to the fact that although the Lothari had superior fighters, the Alliance had better pilots. Still, at twenty-eight fighters on the Alliance side, and eighteen on the Lothari, neither side came out well.
Although the Alliance fighters had been shocked by the missile fire from the gunboats and their subsequent losses, they had recovered somewhat and were determined to hang on to the Lothari fighter force and end the battle. The Lothari, after making a token attempt to return, turned and re-engaged when the Alliance fighters pursued. When the explosions cleared there were fifteen Alliance fighters left, and no Lothari fighters.
The Lothari gunboats were almost back to their fleet, so the remaining Alliance fighters turned back towards their own fleet. A few seconds after the gunboats arrived at the Lothari fleet’s location, the entire fleet dropped their drive fields.
Tai-sa G’Tak was unsure of the reason for this, but was sure that this was his opportunity. The Alliance fleet, escorted by their fifteen remaining fighters, charged towards the drive-field down Lothari fleet. The fleet’s fifteen carriers, now empty or mostly empty, turned away and began moving back towards the outer system. For fourteen minutes the Alliance ships closed on the unmoving Lothari fleet, and Tai-sa G’Tak began to wonder if the Lothari were going to let them into weapons range with their drive fields down, but then, one by one, the Lothari ships raised their drive fields. The Lothari carriers turned away from the battle, leaving six battle cruisers and three heavy cruisers to face three Alliance battlecruisers, six heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, and six destroyers. It was an uneven matchup, except that the Lothari fleet also had one hundred and thirty-two gunboats arrayed ahead of their formation.
Swordsman of Worlds Schmidt was dismayed that he had not had enough time to completely rearm his gunboats, as the oncoming Alliance fleet had only given him enough time to arm half of the gunboat flotilla’s XO racks. It would have to be enough, as the Alliance fleet was bearing down on them.
The Lothari gunboats moved out ahead of their fleet, interposing themselves in between their warships and the oncoming Alliance warships. Once the gunboats were five light seconds in front of the Lothari fleet, the entire force began moving towards the Alliance force.
Two and a half minutes later, the Lothari gunboats were four light seconds from the Alliance fleet, and the Lothari ships were five light seconds behind them. The Lothari ships were still well out of range of Alliance weapons, but an astute Alliance weapons tech had realized that the Lothari gunboats, unlike other small craft like fighters, had a drive field signature strong enough to be targeted by ship-carried weapons. The Alliance battlecruiser group launched fifteen capital missiles, each targeted on a single gunboat. Ten capital missiles succeeded in locking onto their targets, but only three got through the withering point defense fire put out by the gunboats. One of the two Alliance heavy cruiser squadrons launched a total of thirty-six standard missiles at the gunboats, also destroying three. The second cruiser squadron and one of the light cruiser squadrons accounted for four more with their heavy force beams. The six Alliance destroyers accounted for another three with their missiles, bringing the total of destroyed gunboats to eleven. That was less than ten percent of the gunboat force, which was concerning, but was more than they would have been able to do against a fighter group at that range.
Tai-sa G’Tak knew that the Lothari intended to make a simultaneous attack against his fleet, forcing him to choose between firing on the gunboats or the enemy’s ships, and was determined to throw off their calculations. As the Lothari ships and gunboats continued to close, he ordered his fleet to come to a halt and begin engine modulations. The Alliance and Lothari ships were now within extreme range of their capital missiles of each other, but the Alliance ships continued to focus their fire on the Lothari gunboats, while the Lothari long-range fire was of limited effectiveness because of the Alliance engine modulations.
A group of Lothari gunboats fired their anti-fighter missiles at the Alliance fighter force, but at two light seconds range the AFM’s weren’t particularly accurate. Out of the twenty-eight AFM’s fired, only eleven got hits, but that was enough to wipe out most of the remaining Alliance fighters. The Alliance again focused their fire on the Lothari gunboats, but instead of spreading their fire out, were concentrating their missile fire among fewer gunboats, trying to overwhelm their point defense. Twenty-one gunboats fell to the withering fire from the Alliance fleet, but, unknown to the Alliance commanders, that fire was mostly wasted. The Alliance ships had concentrated their fire on the gunboats launching AFM’s at their fighters, trying to stop the destruction of their fighter force. They knew that the gunboats could mount two AFM’s, and as they only launched one each in this exchange of fire, they assumed that that the gunboats retained one in reserve. As the Lothari had only managed to load half of their gunboat’s racks, they were, in fact, destroying empty gunboats that had no other weaponry than their point defense. For their part, the Lothari BC’s managed to get one hit on an older Alliance light cruiser with anti-matter tipped SBM’s, damaging its shields.
In an attempt to surprise the Lothari gunboats, the Alliance force dropped its engine modulation and surged ahead, turning to try to stay out of point-blank range of the gunboats and to keep them out of their blind-spots. They succeeded in keeping the gunboats out of their blind-spot, but in exchange for allowing them to reach point blank range. The Lothari and Alliance ships ended up four point five light seconds from each other, each side firing continuously as they came.
The Lothari battlecruisers didn’t mount heavy broadsides of missiles, but their light salvoes proved to be sufficient to keep the Alliance point defense focused on the missile attacks and not the gunboats. The Alliance ships split their fire, launching their long-range capital missiles against the Lothari fleet, and firing their beam weapons and shorter ranged missiles against the Lothari gunboats.
The short-range battle around the Alliance fleet was intense and destructive. The Alliance ships desperately engaged the gunboats, even as the Lothari fleet lobbed small missile salvoes into the fray from long range. The gunboats dodged incoming fire as well as they could, and salvoed their weapons into the flanks of the big Alliance ships even as many of them were destroyed just short of their targets. About half of the gunboats were armed with anti-matter close attack missiles, while the other half were armed with four laser packs each. The anti-matter close attack missiles devastated their Alliance targets, engulfing them in anti-matter explosions that overwhelmed their passive defenses and gutted their interiors. The few remaining Alliance fighters did their best against the attacking gunboats, and managed to take out three, but lost two of their own number doing it.
It was a much-depleted gunboat force that remained around the burning Alliance fleet. Out of the one hundred and thirty-two gunboats that attacked, fifty-one remained. Out of those, only seventeen had laser packs left. On the other hand, the gunboat attack had shaken the Alliance Fleet. Only nine ships were undamaged, three heavy cruisers, two escort light cruisers, and four destroyers. One heavy cruiser, one light cruiser, and two destroyers had been destroyed outright. Of the damaged ships, several had only suffered light damage, but others were crippled and could not move under their own power. Tai-sa G’Tak’s command battlecruiser had been crippled by the gunboats, and G’Tak was out of communication with the rest of the fleet as a result.
With no overall command and control, the intact Alliance ships fell back on their individual commanders for guidance. Their first instinct was to protect the damaged ships, many of which could not move, or couldn’t move very fast, and so the intact ships began maneuvering to keep the remaining gunboats out of their blind-spots. The last three Alliance fighters valiantly chased the remaining Lothari gunboats, which were trying to line up shots on the evading Alliance ships. Meanwhile, the Lothari fleet closed on the Alliance fleet.
The Lothari ships were now within effective range of their weapons and commenced a withering bombardment of the disrupted Alliance datagroups. The Lothari laser armed gunboats were lining up to attack the damaged Alliance battlecruisers when two Alliance heavy cruisers armed with advanced missile launchers fired everything they had into the gunboat swarm, taking out fourteen of the seventeen gunboats before they could fire. The last three gunboats fired into a damaged battlecruiser, just before they were ambushed by the last three Alliance fighters, who destroyed two of the gunboats. The last gunboat was picked off by an Alliance escort destroyer as it tried to pull away from the Alliance fleet.
The Lothari fleet continued to close. Swordsman Schmidt considered breaking contact and withdrawing, as his gunboat force was depleted and had expended its external weaponry, but he was fairly sure that now that he had the Alliance force on the ropes, withdrawing would be seen as cowardice by the Leader. The Alliance fleet was still disorganized by the loss of Tai-sa G’Tak, who was still out of contact and/or wounded or dead. Still, with the gunboats departing and the Lothari fleet closing, the Alliance captains rallied and all ships still capable of movement turned towards the oncoming Lothari fleet and moved towards them to protect their damaged squadron-mates. Three Alliance heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, and four destroyers went to meet the Lothari force, which was composed of six battlecruisers and three heavy cruisers, only one of which had damage to its shields and armor.
One of the Lothari battlecruiser groups fired first, targeting an intact Alliance heavy cruiser with nine HET lasers at close range. Their lasers punched through the cruiser’s armor in multiple places, going all the way through the ship and out the other side, leaving a wreck behind. In response an Alliance cruiser targeted the damaged Lothari BC with two capital force beams and a spinal force beam, taking out most of the big ship’s engines. The Lothari heavy cruiser group focused its advanced gun/missile launchers in sprint mode on another Alliance heavy cruiser, wiping it from space in a deluge of anti-matter missile fire. Two Alliance light cruisers focused their capital force beam fire on an intact Lothari battlecruiser, but didn’t manage to knock its shields down. The fighting was bitter as both sides tore at each other.
Two Lothari battlecruisers had suffered heavy damage, but the Alliance force was being whittled down as well. The two groups of ships maneuvered to try to get into each other’s blind spots, or to keep the other out of their own blind spots, while damaged ships fell away from the main group. The Alliance force doggedly fired into the Lothari fleet, trying to shield its damaged units, but the Lothari force eventually overwhelmed them. Ninety seconds after closing to point blank range, the Alliance force was broken, with only six ships retaining engine power, and none with weapons. The Alliance captains dropped their drive fields at that point, signaling that the battle was over.
The Alliance force had been wiped out. Its carriers were retreating, but the warships under Tai-sa G’Tak were either destroyed or disabled. Both sides had lost all or nearly all of their fighters, and the Lothari had only thirty-four gunboats left. Om addition, the Lothari had lost a heavy cruiser, and three of their battlecruisers were damaged. One of the three battlecruisers was a wreck, and would be scuttled within the hour, while the remaining crews of the other two struggled to restore engine power to their heavily damaged ships. The Alliance fleet was scrap. After dropping their drive-fields the Alliance crews abandoned their ships and successfully scuttled their ships, leaving nothing for the Lothari to recover. Tai-sa G’Tak survived the destruction of his flagship, although he was wounded. Swordsman Schmidt tried to retain custody of the Alliance admiral, but was overruled by the InSec commander. Tai-sa G’Tak disappeared into InSec custody, along with the rest of the survivors of his crew.
Swordsman Schmidt ordered his fleet to rearm the remaining gunboats, while his carriers withdrew to replace his fighter losses in the home system. He sent a message back to the home system as well, reporting his victory and requesting reinforcements, now that his fleet had been reduced to three battlecruisers and two heavy cruisers, all of which were low on missiles. He also declined to send his remaining gunboats against the retiring Alliance carriers. The Alliance carriers were withdrawing at maximum speed, and showed no so sign of slowing down. While they were a tempting target, his gunboats would have to risk burning out their drives to catch them, and he was loath to risk his remaining gunboat force, given how depleted his fleet had become.
Tai-sa G’Tak had also dispatched messages back up the chain to the Sector capital and to the Alliance home systems. The message warned of the Lothari possession of advanced fighters and their new gunboats. In addition, the message gave details about the ship classes encountered, and their weapons loadouts. This information was spread by the ICN and would arrive across the Alliance in a matter of days.