19 – The War / Lucia Prime

(Lucia Prime – The Cave – 05.03.2022, 1310)

President Morris watched as the two groups of dots met. The numbers were not in the Alliance's favor. There were three Ha'tak-class Terran ships, versus one Alliance warship. So, Morris was not surprised when she saw that the Maverick ended up taking a pounding. Commanded by Captain Erik Farrell, it was one of the new ships that had been built after the fall. As for he skipper, Farrell had been an accountant. He had been made Captain for the simple reason that there had been nobody else for the job.

He had tried to turn down the job, but his daughter Clara had made him take a tour of the ship. And when he had seen how desperate the crew was, he had decided to take it. That had been in March 2020. He had spent the time between then and now turning himself into the best Captain he could be. ~Lost half his weight, trained himself in hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship.~ He had also worked jobs all over the ship, including the dirty ones. It had made him well liked with his crew.

As for his tactical skills, Farrell had led the Maverick through several fights against pirates. But this was his first big engagement. ~Come on, Erik, surprise me and beat these bastards.~ Alas, the ship was taking a beating from the Terran invaders. And there was nothing Morris could do about it.

(Maverick – Bridge – 05.03.2022, 1315)

The shields were down to eighty percent. ~Old girl is not going to last long like this.~ Farrell thought. But he had come up with several plans for things going south for the winter since becoming Captain. ~No time like now to put them to test.~ Farrell turned his command chair to the Engineering console.

When he had taken command, the room had been the traditional set-up. Which meant a Helm, a weapons console and way too fancy command chair. Farrell had replaced the command chair – which had been more like a throne – with a more simple chair and added two extra consoles. One console was an Engineering console and the other was Science. Had Farrell know about Earth technology, he would have called these consoles steampunk.

"Joanna, take all the non-essentials off-line and shore up the shields."

Joanna, who didn't have a last name, was the ship's Chief Engineer. When Farrell had taken command, the Engineering department had been run by a man called Richard Peters. An elderly man, he had been as creative as a brick through a plain glass window. So Farrell had ordered him reassigned and made Joanna the Chief. His decision had surprised the crew. This was because Joanna was only nineteen years old. But what really made her different, was the fact that she had lost her legs in the Fall of the Alliance.

"That will only get us eleven percent, boss."

"I'll take what I can get," He turned to the Helm. "Sam, put her on course 45 mark 91 and give me full sublight speed."

"You do know where that takes us, right ?" Sam said from the Helm, getting him a look from Farrell. "Okay, okay, setting the course now."

Maverick swung around to the new course, which put her on a collision course with one of the enemy Ha'tak-class ships. The move had the effect that Farrell had hoped for. He had gambled that the Terrans had orders to conquer the planet. And that was kind of hard to do if you were dead. So the Terrans had moved, which had broken their formation.

The problem was that they were still outnumbered. Besides the Maverick, the planet was defended by twelve Al'kesh, seventeen Tel'tac and forty Deathgliders. While the Maverick was exchanging fire with the capital ships, the Deathgliders and Tel'tac had been dogfighting their Terran counterparts. Oddly enough, the Terran Al'kesh were waiting out the battle. But Farrell was not complaining, because it allowed the Alliance Al'kesh to attack the Terran capital ships. The bad news was that the Ancient shields were not even dented by their weapons fire.

"Sam, set course for those Terran Al'kesh."

"Aye, Captain."

The Terrans were up to something and Farrell had every intention of finding out what.

(TIS Carthage – Bridge - 05.03.2022, 1317)

Commodore Richard Woolsey was not a happy camper. He had been given only a handful of ships to conquer the remains of the Lucian Alliance. His superiors figured that once he conquered the Alliance homeworld, the remainder would fall quickly. So he had been given only three Ha'tak-class ships.

The remaining seven solar systems would be invaded by a mix of Al'kesh, Tel'tac, Deathgliders and Troop Transports. But that would not happen for another hour. And for now, he had to worry about dealing with the Alliance warship. Woolsey hit several keys on his command chair and a holographic display appeared in front of him. The shields of the Alliance ship were draining fast, but it was headed towards the reserves.

Woolsey had ordered the measly twenty-four Al'kesh he had been granted to attack this planet to stay behind. Once the enemy fleet had been destroyed, they would bombard Lucia Prime into submission. But apparently, the enemy had other plans. ~Time to put a stop to that.~ He activate the ship's intercom and gave the order to fire Ancient drones. It was time to end this battle.

(Lucia Prime – The Cave – 05.03.2022, 1318)

Maverick was hit by several Ancient drones and exploded. And the smaller ships weren't doing much better either. It was only a matter of minutes before the Terrans finished the fight in orbit and came for the planet. President Morris was already running several scenarios in her head, but none of them were looking very hopeful. She was so busy doing the math in her head that she the didn't notice the new group of dots that appeared at the edge of scanner range.

The computer that ran the scanners, however, did. It tried to identify the newcomers, but failed. What it did figure out, was that the incoming signatures were not Terran or any other profile it knew. So it marked them as unknown, which meant that the dots were yellow. As the last Alliance ship was destroyed, they started moving towards the Terran ships.

(TIS Carthage – Bridge - 05.03.2022, 1325)

Woolsey smiled as the bombers took up their positions to attack the largest cities on the planet. ~And then the real fun will begin.~ Imperial Intelligence knew that the Lucian Alliance was a refuge for the Colonial resistance movement. Once the Alliance surrender, Woolsey would enjoy hunting them down.

"All ships in positions, Commodore," Said Captain Aiden Ford.

Ford was the second-in-command of the Carthage and the ranking pilot. He had been appointed to this position by Grand Admiral Apophis himself, which was why Woolsey did not trust him as far as he could throw him. ~It's only a matter of time before he tries to assassinate me.~ But that was a problem for later. For now, he had an alliance to conquer.

"Tell them to open fire."

"Yes, Commodore."

Ford gave the order and the bombers began their runs.

(Lucia Prime – The Cave – 05.03.2022, 1327)

The city was taking major damage and panic was taking hold of the ground forces. Because the Cave was deep underground, it was relatively safe. But Morris and Archer could hear the radio transmissions from the surface. ~Taken heaven for the bunkers.~ Technically, they weren't really bunkers. However, the Alliance had spent the last couple of months reinforcing basements, sewers and pre-existing caves. There was enough space for a considerable percentage of the population. The rest of the civilians had been evacuated to farms and small settlements outside the capital.

Morris was about to give the order to retreat to the ground, when the short-range sensors beeped. A large cluster of unknown vessels had just entered range. More beeps made it clear that the newcomers had opened fire on the Terrans.

"This is either very good, or very bad." Archer said.

"Only one way to find out," Morris said.

~Wait and see is not exactly my favorite approach.~ But like she had told Archer, it was the only way to find out.

(TIS Carthage – Bridge - 05.03.2022, 1334)

Woolsey cursed as another wave of weapons fire hit the shields. These attackers were unlike any ships the Empire had ever seen. The front sections were shaped like bullets, while the rear sections were saucers. A blue oval in the middle of the saucer indicated the presence of a hyperdrive and there were two red grills at the end of the ships. These were the sublight drives. The ships were gold, except for the tips of the forward section. These tips – apparently the command centers – were silver.

As for the weapons fire that they were unleashing, it appeared to be some kind of energy weapons. They had enough punch to destroy the smaller ships, but the Ha'tak-class ships were unaffected. Unlike the Alliance vessels, however, these ships were maneuverable enough to dodge the fire from the Woolsey's ships. And there were dozens of them.

"We've lost all support ships !" Ford said.

"Shields status !?"

"Holding at…," That was a far as he got before another wave of weapons fire hit. "…ninety-seven percent. Their weapons are ineffective against our shields. We are…"And then the enemy switched to missiles. "They're through our shields !"

"How is that…."

That was as far as he got before things started exploding.

(Lucia Prime – The Cave – 05.03.2022, 1335)

"How did they do that ?" Morris asked.

For the first time, she looked around the room. The large displays they had been using to monitor the fight, were mounted on one wall. Facing it were three rows of five consoles each. Beyond that was a table with map of the Alliance carved into it. The consoles were manned by military personnel and the Admirals had been using the table to track the status of the invasion as a whole. Admiral Lawson was an elderly man, who commanded the Western Half of the Alliance. Admiral Henderson was a woman in her forties in command of the Eastern Half fleet. It was Henderson who answered.

"I noticed that each of the newcomers has their energy weapons set to a different frequency," She began. "They are probably comparing the impacts of the bolts on the shields, allowing them to figure out the frequency."

"And if those missiles have anti-shield jammers," Archer said. "Then all they would have to do, is punch that in and fire away."

Morris looked back at the screen. Whoever these people were, they had just ruined the Terrans plans. But what were their plans once they were done with that ?

(Flagship – Command Center – 05.03.1342)

Fleet Commander 2K#R11 watched as the enemy capital ships exploded. He turned to his Helmsman and gave the order to set course for their next target. The Stragoth's contribution to this fight was over. There was an irony that 2K#R11 ended up saving a planet full of Humans. His brother, 2Z*V42 had died while leading an attempt to invade a human world called Earth.

Of course, the Humans did not known the Stragoth's name. So instead, the Earthers referred to them as Mimetic Aliens or P3X-118 Hostiles. The reason for the later name was because the failed invasion had been launched from a planet the Earthers called P3X-118. They had done so, using a device that many in the galaxy referred as a Stargate.

The planet was now off-limits to the Earthers and their allies, with extra security measures preventing further incursions by the Stragoth. Ironically, in making this world forbidden territory, the Earthers had actually done the Stragoth a favor. Their homeworld – simply called Home – was located in the same solar system as P3X-118. Before, the Leadership had considered full scale colonization of the planet too dangerous because of the Stargate. But with the world 'locked out' by the Earthers, they had changed their mind.

So for the past twenty-three Earth years, that was exactly what the Stragoth had been doing. Colonizing P3X-118. They had also used a cloning program to increase their numbers and been building a fleet. The original plan had been to use this fleet to defend their planet. But when the Terrans had invaded, the High Command had changed his orders. 2K#R11's superiors were well aware that his fleet of seventy-two Vengeance-class interceptors was not big enough to wage a full-scale war.

Which was why his superiors had given him order to execute hit-and-run attacks on small Terran task forces. 2K#R11 had quickly realized that if the invasion of the Alliance homeworld failed, the invasion of the alliance would collapse. The Helmsman informed him that the fleet was ready to jump. He gave the order and the fleet jumped.