Chapter Six
Terran Federation Space near Free Jaffa Nation's non declared border
345 degrees Galactic Longitude and 37,000 light years from Earth - 3kpc Arm near Galactic Bar
TFS-41 Enyo – Achilles class
Bridge
September 12, 2010
"Any one Captain?" asked Lieutenant John Perhar the Enyo's sensors officer. A British born officer of Indian descent, Perhar was dedicated and detail intensive.
"Any one with at least a solid planet that we can use for resources; and please find one that goes easy on the transporter and replication systems, one without much background radiation. I don't want the station to have to constantly compensate. A red dwarf or a brown dwarf system will be OK." answered Captain Greg Woodruff with a wave of his hand. A former US Los Angeles class submarine Captain, who started his career with the Terran Federation Space Force as XO of the TFS-12 Aeneas; he was one of the first to be assigned as Captain of an Achilles class without being assigned first to a Daedalus.
"I have a spectral class L brown dwarf, with the equivalent of 23 Jupiter masses that seems pretty stable at this range, and with nothing more than a planetoid smaller than Pluto at 2.7 AU from its sun." said John
"Great. Helm, set a course." said the Captain.
The Enyo changed course and headed for the brown dwarf solar system, then slowed for transition to normal space, entering system close to the planetoid.
"Give me a full analysis Lieutenant, if you please." said the Captain to the sensor's officer.
"Aphelion: 2.98 AU, Perihelion 2.54 AU, Semi-major axis 2.76 AU, Orbital period 1,680.5 days, Average orbital speed 17.82 km/s ..."
The Captain interrupted him, "Give me the Physical characteristics and the mineral analysis only."
"Yes, Sir. Equatorial radius: 487.3 km, Polar radius: 454.7 km, Surface area: 2,845,794.56 sq km, Mean density: 2.077 g/cm3, Mass: 943 Exa tonnes ..."
"With the mass and mean density is enough Lieutenant. Give me the mineral composition, please."
"Yes, Sir. It consists of a rocky core overlain with an icy mantle, which is 100 km thick and 28 percent of the planetoid by mass, but 50 percent by volume, and contains 200 million cubic kilometers of frozen water, which is more than the amount of fresh water on Earth."
"Common on planetoids. What about the core?"
"The core is composed mainly of iron silicates, oxides and sulfides."
"Divide the mean density of a Ha'tak's composition by that of the planetoid, and give me a number."
"9.32, Sir."
"Hmm... We'll need a lot more power for the replication facility. Thank you Lieutenant."
"Sir?"
"What is it John?"
He smiled, "Eh. Considering energy losses from replication inefficiencies and reactor consumption, we have enough mass in this planetoid to produce more than a hundred million Ha'taks."
"You really did that calculation?" asked the Captain with a surprised face.
"Yes, Sir." answered the sensor officer proudly.
"My God." said Captain Woodruff shaking his head, "Thank you, Lieutenant. It's good to know that we are not running out of resources." he said smiling, but kept shaking his head, and then added "Send the mean densities to the external replication team, and tell them that they are to commence replication of the facility as soon as they have made the corresponding modifications to the power output of the station"
"Yes, Captain."
A few hours later, the transporter system started beaming raw material from the surface of the planetoid and onto the Enyo, were it was converted into different materials and alloys, and then beaming them away to start construction of the Ha'taks replication facility. The space station was to be located at low orbit, as to allow it to move faster than the planetoid's standard rotation, so that it could homogeneously mine it for raw materials with its transporter technology, and also to reduce the range the transporter system will have to work from.
The station had two requirements:
First, it needed to produce 100 Mega tonnes of raw materials in the percentages required to build a Ha'tak. Transporting the materials via Stargate would have required at least three of them working almost non stop in order to transfer the amounts required, and the Jaffa didn't have the logistical capacity to move those amounts of resources fast enough from the vicinities of the stargates. Waiting for them to do so would have required a far greater amount of stargates, and in consequence a far greater number of replication facilities, so it was decided to use replicated Al'kesh supply trains to ferry the resources directly to the shipyards, and download them via ring transporter to the ground. This could also be performed on close Jaffa planets and sent the resources via stargate towards far away shipyards.
Second, it needed to produce one Batch 3 Ha'tak every four hours, and that required a little more than twenty times the flow of raw materials from the surface of the planetoid than was required to produce the 100 Mega tonnes.
As the density of the planet would influence the transporter beam and reactor requirements, the station was designed to be modular. Planetoid side, the facility will have a total of five transporter beam emitters modules deployed in line, with two emitters per module to provide redundancy, rest and repair time for five, while the other five stayed in operation. The emitter modules were attached to a bigger 400 meter by 400 meter and 100 meter thick platform, that housed a total of 32 GENFR (Gravimetric Enhanced Naquadria S Fusion Reactors). A total of 21 reactors with a total output of 4.2 EW were required for replication duties, while the reminder were to be used as backup and for the cloaking device. The platform continued upwards for another hundred meters where the control center and habitat section were located, including a stargate and several warehouses. On top was the main Ha'tak replication center. It was completely open to space, but surrounded by eight spider like arms, that contained the replication beam emitters. The station was able to replicate a Ha'tak at the lower areas of the arms, and Al'kesh supply trains on top.
The Enyo started working at full power to replicate the space station, and it was expected that in a little more than a month the facility will start deploying Al'kesh supply trains to provide the FJN with the raw material required to max out Ha'tak production, and at the start of next year, the station would start producing Ha'taks. This last was decided to mimic the time required to start mass producing ships in a non-replication capable shipyard.
Captain Greg Woodruff was standing proudly in front of the observation deck admiring the work of the replication system, when he extended both arms, smiled, and said, "Behold, Enyalius Replication Facility."
"Enyalius? Sir." asked a bridge officer.
"Well? It's Enyo's son, so I though it was fitting." answered the Captain.
"I though it was to be called Ha'tak Replication Facility." said the communications officer.
"Not fitting. It's Enyo's creation, so we'll call it Enyalius. Lets make it even better. We'll call the planetoid Enyalius, so as the Station is orbiting it, we can now officially call it Enyalius Replication Facility." said the Captain with a definitive tone.
"Yes, Sir. Enyalius Replication Facility it is." confirmed the communications officer matter of factly, but couldn't hide the pride on his face.
"Yes it is." finished the Captain, and turned, and walked away from the bridge while saying, "I'll be in my quarters Lieutenant."
"Yes, Sir."
Enyalius Planetoid – Terran Federation
October 24, 2010
There were five bright blue dots moving around the surface of Enyalius. They were each followed by a few hundred meters long beam of bright white atmospheric distortion that went all the way through the thin Enyalius atmosphere, but once leaving it, disappeared. To the trained eye, and using an advanced sensor, it was easy to see that those beams pointed to the same location in Low Enyalius Orbit, but if they were to check the area of space where the beams would supposedly join, they would find nothing. The reality was that a cloaking field covered that location, and inside it the Enyalius Replication Facility was just starting construction of the second Al'kesh supply train. The first one was adjacent to the station waiting for its crew to begin their journey to Jaffa space.
Inside the station, its stargate activated and two humans stepped through it from the Alpha site and reached a completely enclosed room, one mimicking the Asgard stargate room at Bifröst. Immediately, two flashes of bright blue light transported both pilots to the Al'kesh cockpit.
Adjacent to the station, the Al'kesh powered up its systems and started a thorough testing process. The four bulk containers at the stern of the ship, that each carried 25,000 tonnes of raw material, were floating without any kind of tractor system holding them to the small vessel. Once the main systems were in the green, a yellowish light emerged from the stern of the Al'kesh towards the first container. The cargo module realigned itself with the Al'kesh with the power of the tractor beam, and immediately the stern of the container lit up and connected with the second cargo module, aligning it in the same manner, and repeating the process until all four containers were linked to the Al'kesh.
The station's replication beams were working on the second Al'kesh supply train when the first one started moving away from it and the Enyo which was mounting guard. In a few seconds it passed through the cloaking field, creating a small distortion on the surface of it, which, after the Al'kesh passed through, immediately rectified itself. A few minutes later the first Al'kesh supply train entered hyperspace and headed for a Jaffa shipyard.
Every 8.79 hours a new supply train will repeat this process securing raw materials for Jaffa shipyards, allowing them to max out their production. Once these vessels arrive at their destination, they will release the containers in orbit of the shipyards and leave the system to return to the replication facility. At that moment the Jaffa would start the process of unloading the resources from the cargo modules via ring transporters. Inside these modules were stacks of circular ingots the size of the ring transporter that could be mounted on circular anti-gravity repulsors. A single Jaffa would be able to move the repulsor to the stacks and lower several of them into it, and then use the ring transporter to move it to the surface, repeating the process until all 25,000 tonnes of raw material per cargo module were unloaded. A second trip from an Al'kesh supply train would repeat the process, but this time it will take the empty containers for refilling at the Enyalius Replication Facility, which would only reload the containers instead of creating whole supply trains.
Tyl'mah – Free Jaffa Nation Colony
Batch 1 Ha'tak – Bridge
December 14, 2010
Rak`nor had transfered his command to one of the few Batch 1 Ha'taks available on the Fleet deployed at Tyl'mah. He had received intelligence from the Terran Federation about the Aschen's Fleet composition and deployment, its E.T.A., and supply convoy's schedules. He had planned for many contingencies, but he knew, as every experienced commander knows, that operations never go as planned. He had a strong Fleet under his command that even surpassed the approaching Aschen Fleet, but he was woefully outnumbered if he took into account Aschen drones, and he had to.
His Ha'tak's hyperspace sensors had the approaching Aschen Fleet on scope. One hundred and eleven contacts. He knew that very well from the Terran Federation intelligence. They had 3 Huge CSV(Command Space Vessel), 81 ESV(Escort Space Vessel), and 27 SSV(Scout Space Vessel). These last ships were the spear head of the advance, and started dropping out into normal space on different locations. The Scouts activated their sensors, and started gathering intelligence of the entire solar system, while relaying that information to the Command Vessels. The telemetry being received by the Aschen forces in hyperspace showed that the Jaffa had 62 Ha'taks, 531 Al'keshes, and 2,976 Death Gliders in Tyl'mah's orbit.
After a few minutes of intelligence gathering, the Aschen Fleet waiting in hyperspace resumed its course towards the star system, and were about to make their transition to normal space.
"Hai'rak you know the drill, but still refresh it for every Ship Master. As soon as those ships transition, I want every task force to hit their designated Command Vessel Battle Group with force. We stop at nothing. If we allow them to deploy sufficient drones this battle is over. Is that understood?" ordered Rak'nor
"Yes, Fleet Master." answered Hai'rak, while relaying Rak'nor's orders to every single Ha'tak
A few seconds later, Tyl'mah's space was lighted up with 84 hyperspace vortexes. Three CSV Battle Groups emerged from them. One positioned in front of the Jaffa orbiting Fleet, but at more than a 100,000 kilometers, while the other two deployed at the Jaffa's flanks, but at no more than 50,000 kilometers from them. The three CSV Battle Groups were creating a triangle, and the Jaffa Fleet was at the middle of the base. The Aschen vessels wasted no time, and before the last ship transitioned, the first ones were already launching drones.
The last vortex closed, and that information was relayed to Rak'nor via subspace communications. This was what he was waiting for. 189 Ha'taks deployed outside the Heliosphere and on interstellar medium entered hyperspace opening the same number of hyperspace vortexes, and headed towards Tyl'mah. The ships streamed at maximum speed and were heading to join the Jaffa Fleet in orbit in engaging the Aschen. 57 percent of the entire Free Jaffa Nation's Ha'taks had gathered for what would be the biggest engagement in Free Jaffa history.
The Ha'taks in hyperspace separated into three groups of 63 ships, and each headed to engage one CSV Battle Group. It took them less than twenty seconds to enter hyperspace and move into position. The three Jaffa Battle Groups opened their jump vortexes above the enemy vessels. In the mean time the Aschen had deployed more than 14,000 drones, or close to 14 percent of the total. Rak'nor's goal was to take out the enemy capital ships before they could launch all their fighters, or there would be no way for him to win the battle.
The Jaffa vessels opened fire, and soon thousands of green plasma bolts streamed towards the Aschen vessels that were taken almost by surprise. They had detected the Jaffa ambush when their ships entered hyperspace from outside the Heliosphere, so they only had a few seconds to prepare for the attack.
The Aschen Fleet redeployed to engage the newly arrived ships. The Jaffa had jumped in close to the CSV Battle Groups, and this left the Aschen with no other choice than to turn and engage. Three battles ensued in different locations, but as every engagement was composed of the same number of ships, the results were almost similar, even if every ship moved and fired in different ways.
A rain of green plasma bolts dropped on the Aschen ships. Rak'nor had assigned two Ha'taks to engage every ESV, while using nine to engage every CSV. It was a huge advantage for the FJN forces and the Aschen knew it, but there was nothing they could do to avoid the results. They couldn't escape into hyperspace as the Jaffa plasma bolts were blanketing the area. Any attempt to open a vortex would result in instant instabilities that would force them to disengage, or pass through one that would certainly destroy them. So they engaged, knowing quite well the future that awaited them.
Jaffa gliders poured out of their Motherships. They headed towards the enemy drones, which were being launched by the hundreds. Their mission was to allow the Ha'taks to escape into hyperspace after finishing off the Aschen capital ships. They were to stop the thousands of drones heading their way, and then escape towards the Jaffa Fleet in orbit of Tyl'mah. The Aschen on the other hand, concentrated all their fire on single Ha'taks to allow their ships a better chance of destroying a Jaffa vessel, while at the same time, they continued launching drones. The first drones launched had already stopped their advance towards the orbital ships and were heading to engage the closer vessels.
Similar results were being mimicked on all three engagements. The first ship to be destroyed was a single Ha'tak in every battle, which had been overwhelmed by the combined fire of every CSV Battle Group. Each of the Aschen's Command Space Vessels were firing their two main cannons, and were delivering two 109 PJ bolts per second into their targets. This was enough strength to destroy a Ha'tak in almost 5 seconds, and by combining the fire-power of the entire Battle Group they were able to bring down this number to a little more than 2 seconds. The advanced Aschen battle computers were calculating the time required to destroy an enemy ship, and when the last bolt left to finish a target, they were already firing against another. That was something that could not be said of the FJN. They did have computers to align and fire their weapons against the designated target, but every new target had to be assigned by a Jaffa. This had the effect that when a ship was destroyed many bolts passed through the wreckage instead of hitting a new one.
The battle continued, and six Ha'taks had already been lost. Two in each area of operation before the Aschen started losing ESVs at an alarming rate. The enemy escorts were performing heavy evasive flying, but still the two Ha'taks assigned to each one were just too much for their shields to handle, and the Aschen Battle Groups started thinning down into nothing. At that same time the first drones started reaching the FJN positions.
The Gliders started firing at long ranges. They had learned in Nakgora the consequences of bunching up when facing fusion warhead equipped drones, and were keeping the distance between each other and the Aschen automated weapons. Even so the number of drones approaching made that proposition very complicated, and many flashes of fusion detonations were seen all over the battlefield. The Gliders were approaching in staggered formations, but were penetrating the drone line with heavy losses. Still, every time a drone blew up to take with it a glider, it also took several other drones with it, and were allowing the Jaffa fighters to accomplish their mission.
In just a few seconds of fighting the Aschen had lost all of their ESVs, but the three CSVs remaining were resisting enough, and giving time for many drones to reach the FJN positions and which compromised the Ha'taks by slamming and detonating into their shields. On each engagement, there were close to 60 Ha'taks left, and they were all firing against the CSVs. Soon the first one lost its shield, and the plasma bolts started hitting the heavily armored vessel. A few seconds later with many bolts pounding its armor and structure the ship exploded in a big fireball. The two remaining CSVs shared the same fate, and were lost several seconds later to the superior fire-power of the Jaffa motherships.
"All vessels retreat immediately! Covering fire! Covering fire!" said Rak'nor as hundreds of fusion detonations were clearly seen outside his observation window. A Ha'tak blew up, followed by several others, while the Jaffa ships fired furiously against the Aschen's drones. But either way the job was done and the first hyperspace vortexes started opening and taking the FJN fleet into hyperspace. Some of those vortexes collapsed when drones detonated on them, and some Ha'taks were crippled or forced to abort, and were unable to escape. But either crippled or stranded, it meant guaranteed destruction by the marauding drones, which soon held true to their reputation of ship killers by eliminating all the unfortunate stragglers.
The battlefield went silent. The destroyed remains of 81 ESVs and 3 CSVs, were accompanied by those of 23 Ha'taks, but while the Aschen Capital ships were destroyed, they had still been able to launch before and during the battle more than 24,000 drones. Many were lost against Gliders, Ha'tak's point defenses and through self detonation in ship killer mode, but many thousands remained and were now turning towards the Jaffa forces in orbit.
"That was close. That was very close." said Rak'nor
"Yes, Fleet Master, but we are victorious!" answered Hai'rak with a huge smile on his face.
"Not yet Hai'rak. We still have to deal with their drones and scouts, and they are not to be underestimated."
"Yes, Master. Orders?"
"We'll reinforce our fleet in orbit. Make the transition."
The 166 surviving Ha'taks transitioned to normal space, and joined the FJN Fleet in orbit.
"Master. We are entering formation … Orbit secured." said Hai'rak.
"Good. Dispatch several Al'kesh and find me those missing Scouts." ordered Rak'nor. The 27 Aschen scouts had transitioned to normal space in different location, and many of them were out of range of normal space sensors.
"Yes, Master." said Hai'rak, but wasn't given time to send the orders, when a total of 27 outgoing vortexes were detected by the hyperspace sensors. In a few seconds the first incoming vortex was detected opening in front of the Jaffa Fleet, but a little more than a hundred thousand kilometers away. A few moments later, all Aschen scouts but one, were again in normal space and in front of the Jaffa, while the more than 20,000 surviving drones converged in with them and formed a sphere around the scout ships. A single SSV was seen on hyperspace sensors moving away from Tyl'mah and heading in the direction of Nakgora and the approaching supply convoys, which were more likely to turn back towards Aschen controlled space.
Rak'nor sighed. He had destroyed the main elements of the enemy fleet, but the Aschen SSVs were still able to control the already deployed drones, and their numbers were still enough to cause devastation to the FJN Fleet. "Launch all Gliders and move them forward beyond the range of our point defences, and have the Al'keshes deploy above and below our Ha'tak's formations." ordered Rak'nor without taking his eyes from the main screen.
Hai'rak relayed his orders. Soon many Gliders started launching from the Ha'taks to join the ones already deployed in orbit, and those that stayed in normal space to cover the retreat from the main engagement zone, and which had been able to outrun the drones engaging them. It took some time, but a total of 9,167 Gliders were now ready. 2,881 had been lost defending the Ha'taks, or inside the Motherships that were destroyed, but they were still a strong enough force to take on the enemy drones. Still, one thing was certain, casualties were going to be high.
The Aschen drones accelerated to attack speed, followed closely by the scouts. They were about to reach the Gliders formations when the majority turned downwards like a shoal of fish and headed towards the lower Al'kesh formation, while one fourth of the drones engaged the Gliders. The Aschen new commander changed tactics. He was in no hurry, and was sending the highly maneuverable drones in one to one battle against the Jaffa fighters. The Aschen's fighters fired their pulse lasers first to try and take the gliders from afar, but kept their approach, and as soon as they were in range, they started detonating their fusion warheads. This forced the Jaffa gliders to keep their distance or risk being overwhelmed by the nuclear detonations, and were allowing the great majority of the enemy drones to pass through to engage the lower Al'kesh formation.
While the gliders were pinned and heavily engaged by a quarter of the drones, the majority of them were reaching the lower Al'kesh formations. The Jaffa small vessels started firing their plasma cannons towards the approaching drones, while moving into the relative safety of the Ha'taks main body, which by Rak'nor's orders, were repositioning to face the approaching drones, and were firing their primary weapons on long range suppression fire to help cover the Al'kesh retreat.
"Bring the upper Al'kesh formation inside the main body, but keep them out of our firing arcs." ordered Rak'nor, while Hai'rak complied by relaying his orders.
The Al'keshes dropped towards the Ha'taks and repositioned at their sides, while the ones from the lower formation were starting to reach the main body under heavy pressure from the Aschen, and had already lost several ships to fusion detonations.
The main drone formation reached orbit where the lower Al'keshes were, and now turned while covering their SSVs to engage the main body. At the same time several hundred drones dropped inside the atmosphere towards the main Jaffa military garrisons.
The 228 remaining Ha'taks that were deployed in a wall type formation, opened fire with their point defense cannons. More than 10,000 small plasma bolts per second were streaming towards the Aschen formations. The SSVs kept outside the range of the Ha'taks, while being covered by a strong force of drones, while the rest of the automated weapons headed at maximum speed towards the FJN forces gathered in orbit.
"Hai'rak! Order all vessels to keep formation, but start moving the Fleet away from those drones." ordered Rak'nor.
Hai'rak had gained enough experience as to comply immediately to any order given by Rak'nor, but even though he was already relaying his orders, he had to ask, and he did. "What about our garrison? Master."
"They're on their own. There is nothing we can do to assist them. We ambushed their fleet, and they want to force the same on us. They want us to move to help them so that their drones are able to overwhelm us. We will not. If they take out this Fleet, we'll be unable to stop their advance into our space. Keep the Fleet firing but in withdrawal." answered Rak'nor
It was a difficult decision for any commander to make, but he had to. Risking ships to fight on his enemy's terms while they still possessed a considerable number of drones, was not an option, as the FJN forces were in the strategic context extremely outnumbered by the Aschen Confederation. His ships still had superior speed in normal space, however, and he intended to use that to his advantage.
The wall of ships the FJN had created started moving away from the drones. The Ha'taks kept the same orientation as their drives were omnidirectional, but the Al'keshes had turned away, and were firing their plasma cannons from the stern.
It didn't take long for the Aschen to identify this Jaffa strategy, as they had used it in Nakgora. They were unable to recall their drones to jump into hyperspace and reposition to cut the FJN Fleet from fighting in withdrawal, so they ordered their drones a change of targets, and they immediately stopped their pursuit to avoid unnecessary losses, and then turned towards the gliders to hit them from behind.
It was a chess play. Constant action and counter-action. Rak'nor was watching his main screen, and considering his next move. Drones were heading to hit his gliders, and cut them from behind, so he didn't have much time. He could feel Hai'rak's eyes drilling his right cheek expecting an order. He took a deep breath and said. "Order the gliders to pull back into the main fleet body, and move the fleet forward to hit the drone's right flank to relieve a little pressure from them."
Hai'rak immediately got to work and the pieces started moving. The gliders started pulling away from their main engagement, while the Fleet started moving towards them to relieve the pressure from the new approaching drones. The Aschen commander didn't wait to make his counter move. He had a quarter of his units already engaging the Jaffa gliders, so he assigned another quarter of his drones to keep heading towards them to try and cut out their escape route, while half of his fighters changed course, and headed again towards the Jaffa Fleet.
Rak'nor was made anxious by this move and counter-move. He would have liked a direct fleet engagement as the Goa'uld battles of old, but he had to keep his fleet intact, and he also wasn't fighting a close minded system lord. This Aschen commander knew what he was doing. He didn't have capital ships apart from his Scouts, and was already giving him a terrible head-ache using only slower drones. If he pressed forward, he'll allow his gliders to rejoin formation, but would have to fight through nearly 10,000 drones to do that, or he could order his gliders to move away from them and the offending drones, and pull his Fleet back into a fighting withdrawal, and that is what he ordered.
The gliders moved away from the engagement while still fighting the original group of drones, and the Fleet started moving in the opposite direction, but still firing against the approaching Aschen fighters. Many gliders were lost, but his Fleet hadn't lost a ship apart from those on the first engagements. The Aschen on the other hand had been steadily losing drones every time they wanted to approach the Jaffa Fleet, and many other in engaging the Jaffa gliders, even though on that engagement the kill ratios were clearly in their favor.
After several minutes of pursuit, with the Aschen taking loses from Jaffa point defenses, and incapable of gaining a tactical maneuver positional advantage, the two Fleets disengaged. The Aschen commander aborted and moved his forces away, and gathered them in orbit of Tyl'mah, while the Jaffa gliders reunited with the FJN's main fleet elements.
The Jaffa fleet remained the same, but the gliders now numbered a little more than 5,000, having lost nearly half of its units to the more maneuverable Aschen drones. The Aschen Confederation still had their 26 scouts, but their drones had lost a similar number as the Jaffa gliders, mostly to Ha'taks point defenses, and now numbered close to 16,000.
On Tyl'mah, the Aschen detonated a single drone over Jaffa positions on the ground. The detonation was made at high altitude, so that the nuclear blast affected only a small area of the surface. Only the location where the Jaffa had stationed forces, as they wanted to capture the planet in good condition and not ravaged by thermonuclear explosions. This forced the Jaffa to move their forces to engage in a direct fight so as to gain orbital superiority, but the Aschen had deployed thousands of drones in groups forming a funnel to the main Aschen Fleet formation, so when the Jaffa Fleet tried to engage the main forces, these groups moved into position from the flanks to try and cut the FJN forces and overwhelmed them with numbers, and this forced the Jaffa to retreat without engaging.
The Jaffa forces pulled away, and the Aschen detonated another drone, wiping out a second garrison of Jaffa troops on the ground. Losing brothers in this way was having heavy moral repercussions around his fleet, and Ship Masters from many Ha'taks were already pressing Rak'nor to engage in a frontal assault. He was quickly running out of options. He couldn't risk losing Ha'taks without gains, but that was exactly what was going to happen if some of his ship masters decided to take matters into their own hands by pressing ahead into a glorified attack run against that number of drones. Only one was needed to break up formation for others to follow, so he had to make a decision, and he had to do that fast.
He weighed his options and made up his mind. He gave his order to Hai'rak, detailing every ship and glider movement as to force the Aschen to fight on his terms, and then he finished saying. " …, but don't do it until we are inside the funnel, and their drones start moving towards us, or they will pull away, and we'll be unable to engage. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Fleet Master."
"Attack!"
The Jaffa Fleet moved forward, heading directly towards the main Aschen fleet elements. Looking ahead, one could see the main formation composed of half of the remaining drones and the few Scouts, and flanked by a total of eight forward deployed groups of drones creating a funnel for the Jaffa ships to enter. That was where the FJN Fleet was heading. The Aschen waited to spring the trap. The Ha'taks, Al'keshes and Gliders pulled inside. The flanking drones dropped to the center while the main Aschen Fleet pressed forward.
"NOW!" shouted Rak'nor
Immediately the Jaffa Fleet turned 90 degrees to port. The ships repositioned themselves to face one of the forward deployed groups and pressed on to engage. They singled out a 1,000 drone strong group which was flanked by two other groups of the same size at several hundred kilometers away from it, and which moved immediately to cover the first one. Rak'nor had guessed this and had deployed a similar number of gliders to block their approach so that he could pound the first group without impediment.
3,000 gliders led the way, followed closely by the Ha'taks and Al'keshes. The main group of gliders broke in two, heading on a vector that would take them above and below the first drone formation, while the main Fleet pounded on the middle. The first gliders reached their designated firing positions and turned towards the drones, and fired before breaking away again. They repeated this several times to try an force the drones into breaking formation, before the main fleet got in range and started firing first their main guns, and some moments later their point defense cannons. The drones didn't bother in engaging the upper and lower flanking gliders, and accelerated to attack speed towards the main Jaffa Fleet. They took a little more than a hundred losses from the gliders, before they started taking damage from the FJN Fleet main guns and point defenses, but they still pushed forwards and close the distance to the capital ships.
On the left and right flanks, the situation with the gliders was completely different, as they were engaging the other two groups of drones head on, and then brawling their formations to force them to engage, so that the main fleet had more time to break away, while destroying the first drone group. This tactic forced the second and third group of drones to engage the gliders, and in consequence the Jaffa suffered heavy losses in this engagements, but gave time for the main fleet to take direct action on the first drone group.
On the main engagement, the first drone group was taking heavy damage by the fire-power of 228 Ha'taks and 514 Al'keshes. They were heavily outgunned, already outnumbered, and their lines were thinning very fast, but they had crossed the distance and the few hundred drones remaining had been fed with target data from the Aschen scouts. The first drone passed safely through a hail of green plasma bolts and rammed an Al'kesh head-on, detonating upon impact. The small Jaffa vessel disintegrated with the 135 PJ explosion.
Drones exploded all over, hit by plasma bolts that in some cases were bigger than the drone itself, but still many were finding their marks. The Aschen commander, seeing that the drones were arriving in small formations and numbers because of heavy loses, had decided to redirect the automated weapons against targets that could be destroyed easier. In this case the Al'keshes, but if some bigger formation made it through, he assigned it to Ha'taks, and some did.
Nearly 30 drones plummeted into a Ha'tak, synchronizing their fusion warheads to detonate simultaneously. The bright flash hit the shield which shimmered with force before fading out. The huge amount of thermal energy broke through it and hit the structure with extreme force. The Ha'tak broke in half, with almost all of its central area obliterated. Seconds later the liquid naquada of its weapon systems followed the same path and disintegrated what remained of the ship.
Finally the Jaffa Fleet passed through the lines of what remained of the first drone group. Ha'taks and Al'keshes brought down the few remaining Aschen fighters, and joined the forward deployed gliders in exiting the battle area. The gliders deployed at the flanks also disengaged, and raced behind the main fleet to rejoin them. The Aschen followed with all their forces, until they determined that doing so will only result in more losses and no gain. They pulled back and reformed their lines.
Only two Ha'taks were destroyed, but 87 Al'keshes shared the same fate. The first drone group lost a little more than a thousands ships, and was completely wiped out. The first group of gliders didn't lose a single unit, but the two flanking forces were heavily compromised, losing a little more than 1,500 gliders, while inflicting losses of almost half that number to the second and third drone groups.
The Aschen Fleet had gathered its forces in the same way as the previous engagement, but had replaced the losses from the forward deployed groups with units of the main group, which had reduce its drones from nearly 8,000 to a little more than 6,000.
On the Jaffa Fleet, Rak'nor was again weighing up his options. His tactic had worked, but the last engagement had cost him a lot of ships, especially in the glider and Al'kesh departments, and while he had destroyed nearly two thousand drones, the Aschen had the numbers to absorb that, while he did not. He somehow needed to engage the Aschen at long ranges, or the drones would devastate his fleet. The thing was that every time he approached to firing distance, the drone groups repositioned to force the Jaffa into the funnel, and only when he got into the middle of it would they approach to attack. He could certainly repeat the previous tactic, and success would most likely be with him, albeit with many loses, but using the same tactic again allowed the Aschen to develop a counter move that could jeopardize his approach.
He kept on deliberating, but found nothing he could do. If he had more ships things would be different, but not with the amount he had.
Another drone detonated in Tyl'mah's atmosphere, so circumstances forced him to order the same tactical approach. The FJN Fleet lurched forward towards the Aschen drone funnel, and every thing repeated itself. No new tactic from either side. The Jaffa engaged one of the drone groups, while the others tried to cut them off. The remaining gliders engaged again drone groups two and three, with the only difference being that drone group one was only engaged by Ha'taks and Al'keshes, as the number of gliders had dropped to a little more than 3,000, so Rak'nor had decided to split them into two attack groups to protect his flanks.
The first to engage were the staggered groups of gliders. They clashed against the second and third drone groups. The exchange of fire was heavy. The gliders outnumbered the drones 1.5 to 1, but they couldn't press the advantage as every time they wanted to gang up against a small number of drones, they detonated and caused more damage to the Jaffa formations. Only when the drones bunched up together did the Jaffa press on the attack, because if one detonated, they would certainly destroy the others. The fighting started to heat up when the Ha'taks reached firing distance.
A huge volley of plasma bolts streamed towards the first drone group. Many were destroyed, even with the evasive movements of the little Aschen craft. Losses mounted, but finally, and with great determination, the drones reached the Ha'tak and Al'kesh formation, and Jaffa ships started blowing up after being hit by fusion warhead equipped drones. After a few long seconds of heavy firing, the FJN Fleet was able to eliminate drone group one, and moved away, followed by the survivors of both flanking forces. All in all, the engagement ended up being almost similar than the one before. The Jaffa were able to destroy a little more than 2,200 drones, but losing in the process almost 2,400 gliders, 73 Al'keshes, and 5 Ha'taks.
The Jaffa Fleet retreated again. The Aschen reformed its groups from reserves of the center force, keeping the same number of forward deployed groups, but reducing the number of drones of the main group from more than 6,000 to a little more than 4,000. They still possessed the same tactical capabilities, because the center force had not yet engaged in combat, though if forced to do so, it had enough forces to inflict heavy damage to the FJN forces. Rak'nor knew this, and he no longer had enough gliders to protect his flanks if he wanted to use the same strategy. So now he had no other option than to change tactics or lose more Ha'taks than he could afford.
"Fleet Master. Ship Master Varnah wishes to speak with you." said Hai'rak.
Rak'nor nodded to Hai'rak, and the young warrior activated the main screen.
"Fleet Master. I'm sorry to interrupt." the strongly built warrior said.
"It's OK Varnah. What is it?"
"May I give a suggestion Fleet Master?" asked Varnah bowing his head.
"Of course. Go ahead." answered Rak'nor.
"I noticed that only drone groups one, two and three engaged our forces. All other groups kept their formations. I'm sure that's because they thought we were committed to the same strategy, but it also brings up the question if they are conserving resources?"
"You think they are low in fuel?" asked Rak'nor.
"That is my guess, or at least it's something for them to worry about. Only Aschen Capital ships use gravitic drives, but their drones use Plasma engines. That makes them cheaper to build, but it also makes them slow and resource intensive in prolonged fights, and they no longer have their motherships to return and refuel."
"What are you proposing then?"
"That we move our ships close to them, so that we force them to redeploy. If we move on a single group, they will move away, while the others will move closer to force us into the funnel. We won't get into firing range without being cut off by the other groups, but we can keep this up until we determine if they really have fuel constrains." answered Varnah.
"It's good advice Varnah. I'm only worried that other ship masters will follow suit, or if they'll break formation to try to save our brothers on the ground."
"I don't think there will be a problem, Fleet Master. I have to confess that I wanted to engage head on, and when you ordered us to attack a single group of drones, I was skeptical, but not after watching our losses. I believe that all Ship Masters know quite well now that to do so will mean the destruction of this Fleet."
"That's good to know. I'll give the order to break into smaller groups. We'll start harassing the Aschen without compromising Fleet integrity. Is there something else you wanted to add?" asked Rak'nor.
"No, Fleet Master." answered Varnah.
"That will be all then. Return to your duties."
"Yes, Fleet Master." answered Varnah bowing, while the screen returned to the tactical display.
"Are we going to follow Ship Master Varnah's suggestion, Fleet Master?" asked Hai'rak.
Rak'nor turned to Hai'rak, and answered. "Yes, but we are going to make it more interesting for them. Divide the Fleet by eight so we are able to engage every drone group. Let's see if they can reposition if we attack their funnel instead of their Fleet. Order all ships to fire at will, but have them keep their distance. I don't want unnecessary losses. We'll try to destroy as many drones as we can, but the goal is to keep them moving until they run out of fuel. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Fleet Master. I'm relaying your orders, now." answered Hai'rak while working on his command station.
Several minutes later the Jaffa Fleet started moving towards the Aschen forces. The Ha'taks, Al'keshes, and Gliders started separating slowly into eight groups. Each one composed of 27 some 28 Ha'taks, 44 or 45 Al'keshes, and 127 Gliders. The Fleet moved slowly so that they didn't require too much space to slow down and change course. This way, they would force the Aschen to move into range, whereas if they proceeded at faster speed, by the time they reached firing distance, they would take more time to change course, and would give the opportunity for the Aschen to close the gap.
The Jaffa formations were closing the distance. They started to make their attack run, when every drone group created an individual funnel, forcing every individual Jaffa formation to abort or fall pray to a drone group mini group. The Jaffa ships pulled away, and returned. In some cases their long range fire got lucky and destroyed a drone, but it was mostly a dance between both forces. The Jaffa using their superior speed to prevent the Aschen from harming them, and the Aschen used their superior numbers to always force the Jaffa ships into a funnel. The Jaffa used even smaller groups, and the Aschen created even smaller funnels, but by having superiority in numbers, they forced the Jaffa to retreat in every try.
This went for a couple of hours, and Rak'nor was about to pull his Fleet out of range when the Aschen drones in the atmosphere detonated one after the other, completely wiping out all Jaffa garrisons. The detonations caused massive fires on the surface of Tyl'mah were Jaffa forces had been previously deployed. But this wasn't a provocation to force the Jaffa to engage. Varnah's insight had been proven right, and soon drones that should have been retreating to avoid Jaffa weapons fire did not, and started falling prey to green plasma bolts.
The Aschen launched a last desperate assault against the FJN Fleet, moving their forces to try and surround them, but to no avail. Seeing this, and the critical fuel levels his drones had, the Aschen commander gave the last order of the battle. Many drones headed towards the location of the first fleet engagement and detonated on every big piece of Aschen capital ship left. If there were survivors among the wreckage, it didn't matter to them. Only the fact of not leaving anything for the Jaffa to study and reverse-engineer. Finally, as it was obvious that they would be unable to hold on to the planet, they detonated every stranded drone, and the Scouts opened a vortex and fled toward Nakgora.
The battle was finally over. The Jaffa were victorious, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. All ground garrisons and supply depots had been destroyed. They had sustained massive losses to its irreplaceable glider wings, as production was shifted exclusively to Batch 3 Ha'taks, making the originals even less powerful without its gliders. The knowledge that more than half of the Free Jaffa Nation's Fleet was required to barely defeat three Aschen CSV Battle Groups, when they had more than two hundred to call upon, was demoralizing, and even more if they took into account that their victory was more due to a surprise attack against the Aschen capital ships, and to the drones running out of reactants, than due to real strength from Jaffa forces.
But things were as they were, and the Jaffa Fleet settled into orbit deployed in defensive formations. Rak'nor knew now more than ever, that if Terran Federation produced Ha'taks were delayed in reaching the front lines, he'd be unable to hold the Aschen advance for too long. He had played his card, and came out victorious, but the Aschen now knew his tactic and would most likely not fall for it twice. He had to think of another way of stopping them, or he'd have to prepare his forces for a possible tactical retreat.
Time will tell, but for now damaged as it was, Tyl'mah was still Jaffa.
Aschen Prime – Aschen Confederation
High Command Headquarters
December 15, 2010
The loss of three CSV Battle Groups, and the first major defeat of the Aschen Fleet sent rage ripples throughout its governing body. It wasn't rage for finding one responsible for the defeat, as the Aschen society was focused on finding solutions, and not in assigning blame. The thing was that their pride had been slapped with a white glove, but a glove with a brick inside. The repercussions of the engagement would most certainly be huge, and decisions were already being made, that would most likely escalate the war with the Jaffa from a regional conflict to one of galactic proportions.
Inside the High Command Headquarters round meeting hall, the representatives of every confederated state of Aschen Prime, and those from the other planets, were gathered around the main circle of Admiral, whom had been discussing the Tyl'mah battle. They were there to view the decisions being made, so that they were able to later vote in favor or against them.
"... , and Admiral Nerrob Goyzem was killed in that ambush. As you saw on the post-battle analysis, Scout Captain Rada Keraz was able to rally all remaining forces. He inflicted heavy casualties to the Jaffa, but was forced to retreat and self-destruct his remaining drones because they ran out of fuel for plasma generation. Our forces lost 3 Command Space Vessels, 81 Escort Space Vessels, and every drone, while destroying 30 of their primary ships, 177 of their smaller ones, and more than 11,000 of their fighters. This shows that the three Battle Groups were more than enough to deal with the forces deployed by the enemy. They tricked us into thinking that their orbital fleet was everything they had to offer, and their strategy proved successful. Admiral Goyzem deployed his forces into attack formation, and set his drones to ship killer mode to engage that fleet. By the time he realized his predicament, it was too late. " said Fleet Admiral Eiru Mellom.
The meeting continued for several hours. Different strategies were taken into consideration. They analyzed the strength and weaknesses of the different course of action considered, and reached a conclusion on how to proceed. Admiral Mellom stood up and headed for the central podium, where he addressed the circle of representatives.
"Honored representatives of the Aschen Confederation. The deliberation is concluded, the course of action set. It is now your decision to back the proposal or not. It is as follows: We require the increase of the defense spending from the actual 7 percent to 23 percent, which is the level established that will not threaten the stability of our economy. The extra resources are to be used to expand our production capacity. To produce the number of transport and support ships required to bring the battle to Jaffa space. To considerably increase the number of scout ships, and scout missions to locate the Jaffa home worlds and their production facilities. To research, demonstrate, and validate a gravitic drive equipped drone, so that we can avoid being outmaneuvered by the Jaffa fleets, and finally to increase our number of combat vessels to move from reconnaissance to battle operations. It is your vote that will determine if the Aschen Confederation becomes a Galactic Super Power, by capturing what once was the Goa'uld domain from their pathetic Jaffa servants." He finished by bowing his head, and stepped down from the podium followed by the normal indifferent faces of the representatives.
The admiral took his seat, and the representatives turned their attention to the voting console in front of them, and pressed the corresponding button of their vote. Immediately after the last vote was recorded, the results appeared in everyone's console and on several main screens attached to the walls of the hall.
The vote: an unanimous YES.
Author's after notes:
- For those of you who haven't figure it out yet. The Aschen CSV is the ship seen in SG1's episode "Grace"
- It may seem that the engagement with the Aschen's main capital ships lasted just a few seconds, that's because it lasted just a few seconds. Please consider that I create the battle in an excel sheet (with the number of units involved it gets very big), and take into account fire-power by number of weapons, shield recharge rates and strength, drone launchers by launch times, hit ratios, etc, before I actually write the battle. I want every thing to be as real as possible, and I'm not going to change things just to make it last longer, or make it more dramatic, If ship X requires three hits from weapon A to be destroy, then that's what's going to happen, but still, I'll try to make the writing as interesting as possible.
- I read and re-read this chapter, and I have to accept that my writing quality is low. I wish I could write better. I hope to improve in the future so that I can provide a better read for all of you. Any way, thank you for following this story even with the writing quality I have, and thanks for my betas for the extreme work I put them on.
