Gedexus system
0237 local hour
Terran Federation Ship India
Terran Navy, Third Fleet
Captain: Agatha Pietroni
Admiral: Enrico Romanov
Enrico Romanov, Admiral of the Third Fleet, was not having a good day.
First, the Intelligence Division attached to the Fleet had failed to identify the unknown Omnidex ship. Therefore, they had no actual idea of what this ship could do. They only knew that this was the first time the Omnidex had fielded such a ship against the Terran Federation.
Second, he had received a report from the Homeworld that there would be no additional reinforcements. The report didn't include the status of the 5 other fleets, but Romanov had to assume they were engaged elsewhere.
He was at a disadvantage. He only had 106 ships against 136. And they had an extra battleship. The Citadel was a nice addition, but Romanov knew, and so did the Omnidex: this battle was already lost. The question now was how much it would cost for the Omnidex to win. If the Third Fleet could destroy enough ships, the Omnidex fleet wouldn't go past Gedexus. If they could destroy enough ships.
Terran fleet doctrine was all about fighter superiority. The cruisers had hangar bays, the battleships had hangar bays, and there were even talks to try to get hangar bays on destroyers. On a normal day, this allowed Terran fleets to punch far above their weight. There was only one slight problem on this day that made it impossible: the Omnidex had the same fleet doctrine.
To avoid a complete disaster, the Third Fleet needed to contest fighter superiority at every turn. Should they give it up, it wouldn't take long for the fleet to be overwhelmed and destroyed. He only had to hope that this unidentified ship didn't carry any hangar ba-
"Sir". His captain. "We're getting energy fluctuations from their capital ship."
Romanov frowned. The readings were being displayed on the holo-table in front of him but they didn't make much sense. Those were usually indicative of an energy weapon charging up, but the 2 fleets weren't in range of each other for at least a good hour.
"ETA to effective range, captain?"
"1 hour, sir."
1 hour. A quick math operation allowed him to roughly estimate the distance between the fleets: 20 million kilometers. The best long-range weapons the Terran Federation had developed had a range of approximatively 4 million kilometers. Every intelligence reports he had read on the Omnidex Systems told the same story: the Omnidex were at the same level of tech as the Terran Federation. And yet, the energy readings from their capital ship were telling a different story: one that had the Omnidex in possession of a weapon with a reach of 20 million kilometers.
Well, at least this answered his question on if the ship had hangar bays. Nothing could sport such an obviously power-hungry weapon and hangar bays at the same time.
"Sir." He had seen it. The Omnidex had fired their weapon.
"How long until impact?"
"2 minutes, sir."
Romanov licked his dry lips. He could only hope that the deflectors of the India would hold. It was already bad enough that the Omnidex had a weapon with such a range, so if that weapon could pierce through the shields of a battleship, then the Third Fleet didn't stand a chance.
He got up from his seat, walking to the front of the bridge. Surely, a battleship could take this. Surely, this unknown weapon wasn't that powerful. He couldn't help but feel tense at the prospect of taking on this beam. It was no use dwelling on this, though. They had fired the weapon, and nothing could change that.
He made some quick verifications with the crewmen, making sure the deflectors were up and running at full strength, checking the reactor was cool enough to have power to spare, preparing blast doors in case of a localized hull breach.
The 2 minutes were up before he could finish. They were about to get hit. One last thought was still trailing in his mind.
Was this Omnidex arrogance, or could this weapon really damage a battleship at such an extreme range?
He never got to know the answer. The beam pierced right through deflectors, armor, and hull of the TFS India, obliterating everything in its path, and causing a catastrophic reactor overload.
Gedexus system
0253 local hour
Terran Federation Ship Limousin
Terran Navy, Third Fleet
Captain: Anthony Vitalian
Admiral: Unknown
To say that Anthony Vitalian was not having a good day was like saying the heart of a star is a bit hot. A severe underestimation.
It all began with the loss of the TFS India, the capital ship of the Third Fleet. Such a loss meant not only that they were admiral-less, but also that the Fleet Head of Engineering, the Fleet Head of Intelligence, and the Fleet Head of Logistics were gone. Talk about putting all your eggs in the same basket.
But it didn't stop here. Normal fleet procedure following the loss of an Admiral was to pick the oldest battleship captain as Acting Admiral. If no other battleship was present, then the oldest cruiser captain. This would have been captain Roermond, 36 years old, of the TFS Northumbria, had he not engaged his emergency FTL right after the destruction of the TFS India. Next on the list would have been captain Ursula, 33 years old, of the TFS Sankuru, had she not suffered a mental breakdown at the prospect of leading the fleet to its certain doom. The fleet psychiatrists weren't sure how long it would take before she was cleared for duty again.
And now, captain More, 29 years old, of the TFS Novgorod, was refusing to be named Acting Admiral. This left him, captain Vitalian, 27 years old, of the TFS Limousin, as the next on the list for the position of Acting Admiral. Under normal circumstances, a fleet would have had a dozen cruiser captains above 30 years old. But the Third Fleet had recently suffered heavy losses in a recent war against the Aztani Hierarchy, their neighbors, situated at 1 o'clock in the galaxy. As a result, many destroyer captains had been advanced as cruiser captains, bringing the median age of a cruiser captain in the Third Fleet down to 24 years old.
"Captain Vitalian, do you accept?"
Captain Armus, of the TFS Orkhon, was looking at him with insistence. Or, at the very least, looking at his screen with insistence. For they were all in their respective Conference Room, a room outfitted with dozens of screens, allowing cruiser captains and above to take part in long conferences, in which they would advise the Admiral, voice their concerns, and hear the general plan of action.
Vitalian briefly considered refusing the position, as More had done. A quick look at the screens in front of him convinced him otherwise. They were all spent. The loss of Admiral Romanov, the flight of Roermond, and the breakdown of Ursula had brought the moral of the fleet at a record low. More had already pushed their luck by refusing. A second refusal would probably be the death blow to whatever hope of organization remained in the Third Fleet.
Again, under normal circumstances, this wouldn't happen. Commanding a fleet was one of the highest honors in the Terran Federation. But those were not normal circumstances, and just as commanding a fleet was a great honor, losing one was a great shame for its admiral. It's why Vitalian was so reluctant to accept: this decision would probably be the end of his career, provided he survived the coming battle.
No, he wasn't reluctant anymore. He would accept. Unprepared emergency FTL had a 50/50 chance of blowing up your ship due to excessive structural stress. Roermond must have been planning his little getaway even before the India sunk with all hands. And despite all their losses so far, they still had a strong cruiser advantage and the Citadel to back them up. Thus, he would rather take his chances against the Omnidex. And should Vitalian survive the battle, he would make sure Roermond had a one-way trip in front of a firing squad.
Gedexus system
0332 local hour
Terran Federation Ship Limousin
Terran Navy, Third Fleet
Captain: Anthony Vitalian
Acting Admiral: Anthony Vitalian
His first decision as Acting Admiral was that there would be no strategic meeting to discuss the battle plan. The others had understood. Not only did they lack the time for a proper in-depth strategic meeting (contact was only a couple of minutes away), but the situation didn't call for finesse anyway.
Currently, the fleet was deployed in its traditional formation: corvettes in front, followed by destroyers, followed by cruisers. But Vitalian had left gaps among the corvettes' and destroyers' formations, gaps big enough to fit cruisers. The plan was for the first two formations to quickly decelerate right before contact, while the third formation, his 28 cruisers, would accelerate to find itself at the very front of the formation. The goal was to let the cruisers wreak havoc on the Omnidex light ships while suffering minimum damages. Ideally, it would get the light ships out of the equation and allow them to hit the enemy's heavy ships with the entire fleet.
It wasn't pretty, nor was it especially smart. It hinged on the Omnidex expecting a pitched battle. The initial assault could take longer than expected. They could lose too many cruisers against the light ships to take on the heavy ships. In short, plenty could go wrong. But it was the best plan he could come up with in half an hour, and he preferred it to unprepared emergency FTL.