From: Guest
A: I wona make Gatlantis more like in 2 seson of the orginal Yamato2199/StarBlazers, so no Ark of Destruction. But they still will have enormous numbers of ships and all they others weapons.
Chapter 6
= place: Drok'rachar system, November 10, 2179 =
The Batarian Hegemony Border System, which is just one MassEffect relay jump to the system with moon Torfan, the main pirate base in this part of the known galaxy, with an enormous amount of ties to the Hegemony government, and from where the fleet that attacked Elysium most likely depart. Destroying it is important to System Alliance for 3 reasons.
Neutralize the pirate fleet, which will most likely be used by the Hegemons for combat, or it will simply sniff the opportunity and start attacking various human systems when they are much weaker defended than usual.
The second reason is location. The system has a relay of 2 inhabited systems in the Hegemony and more than 4 others that have different resources needed for the war industry.
The last reason is political/moral. Destroying the pirate base that attacked Elysium will raise the morale of the population and give politics political capital that they can use in many ways they need.
For these reasons, the 8th fleet is to be deployed for the attack, along with over a hundred SDF ships. The ships of the 8th fleet are ships of the 3rd category, including as many as 3 carriers. Together with as many as 4 escort aircraft carriers from SDF, it will be the largest gathering of this type of ship since the time when humanity went into space. Now one of these ships, namely the Enterprise-class carrier Zuikaku, along with an escort of 2 Lima-class cruisers, 3 Königsberg-class destroyers, and 6 Yamen-class frigates. The group, despite the fact that a relatively large number of ships, had one problem, it was the forces of 2 different SDFs on quick assemblies to secure the system that was to be abandoned beforehand.
"39 ships detected, 15 are Hegemony ships and rest is most likely pirates." - The radar operator on the Zuikaku bridge said.
"It will be a problem." - said the confident SDF fleet commander - "They can't find out that we're planning an attack on their base because they'll prepare. Send a message asking for reinforcements and prepare for battle."
"Aren't there too many of them for us to take on?" - asked the first officer.
"Our technology and the aircraft carrier cancel this advantage. Plus, only 15 are Hegemony ships, so the rest of them have to be pirates, and they have weak ships when compare to us." - the commander replied.
"Enemy ships made a short FTL jump. They are only 72,000 km from our position and are racing at us at full speed." - the navigation officer said.
"Send half of the fighters, the rest are to prepare for the second flight." - said the commander.
Just 2 minutes later, all the fighters departed and in the formation to began an attack on the combined Hegemony and pirate fleet. To block this, the Hegmonia commander ordered a tightening of formation to increase the effectiveness of the GARDIAN point defense. At the same time, pirate ships started firing from a distance of 17,000 km. Taking this into account, the SDF fleet was able to avoid almost all hits without any problems.
When the fighters reached their missile range, they split into squadrons of 12 and began firing volleys after a volley of plasma-warped rockets, two per fighter. Most of them, however, never reached their destination, blocked by the GARDIAN system. However, each time 2-3 missiles hit the targets, which were left with burnt holes. When all fighters finished the first attempt, 20% of the ships took some damage or were destroyed. However, the fighters themselves only suffered 10% losses in destroyed and damaged vehicles.
As the fighters prepared for the second attempt, the pirates exceeded 10,000 km and the SDF ships began firing their Shock Cannons. Despite being weaker than their naval counterparts, they took a very heavy toll on Hegemony ships, especially because of their tight anti-hunting formation. However, these replied from the Thanix guns, which were also extremely powerful, and despite the loose SDF ship formation, 5 ships were hit and sustained damage, including the Zuikaku, which enabled her to send more fighters into the fight.
Nevertheless, the next flight, this time of all fighters at once, allowed several missiles from them to penetrate into the heavier pirate ships. Although this time the number of ships damaged or destroyed was half that if previous numbers, the flagship, which was a batarian heavy cruiser, was hit at least 3 times. The commander must have panicked as he ordered the retreat of his ship, which separated from formation and began to flee.
In addition, Alliance reinforcements arrived and the fleet had already suffered heavy losses, and the pirates themselves fought more for profit than for Hegemony, so they tucked their tail and began to flee towards the relay, to which the fighters responded by sending all remaining missiles. Without defensive formation, the effect was more devastating than the previous two attacks combined.
Unfortunately, due to the damage that Zuikaku suffered, landing and rearming became much more difficult, and the commander of fighters didn't want to risk further losses by sending his pilots with only guns. Additionally, in the fight, the ship of one of the SDF officers was struck by and heavily damaged. This, combined with previous injuries, had destroyed his ship, so when the SDF was going to pursue the survivors of pirates, they were unable to organize themselves quickly enough, and the pirates split into two groups. SDF ships managed to catch one, but another group of 6 ships was about to pass through the relay and warn Torfan, putting the entire operation at risk of failure.
Then the relay showed 7 ships, 6 corvettes, and a transporter that were identified as Batarian Rebel ships. The Hegemon ships immediately began firing, but their accuracy was hopeless, even too hopeless. Meanwhile, the Rebel corvettes approached a distance of only 100 km and still not open fire, even changed direction, and the pirate ships couldn't hit any further. Eventually, it was possible to see the corvettes approaching the pirate ships from the rear, destroying the engines from the rear. After the minute, the pirate ships stopped their fire, and shuttles departed from the transport ship and approached the pirate ships. With the SDF fleet commander killed in combat, the commander of the newly arrived Squadron from 8th Fleet began talks when the rebellion opened the channel.
"This is the Rebel fleet to the System Alliance fleet. We seized pirate ships at the relay. After initial repairs have been made, these ships will be sent to our base."
"This is the System Alliance fleet commander. Got it, but first I want to know what happened there."
"We flew in, destroyed the engines, and gave a clear message to the captains of these ships. They give up or they are destroyed."
It was understandable. A ship with no engines in space was just a target waiting to be shot down.
"But that doesn't explain their horribly poor accuracy. In the fight against us, they were able to hit ships from several thousand kilometers, while you approached one hundred and you didn't get a single major hit."
"It's a secret. But if your government agrees to an alliance, we can expose it. Not sooner, later. The only thing I can tell you is that this is our new technology and our greatest advantage over the rest of the faction in this galaxy."
And so the forces of the System Alliance and the Rebels went their separate ways.
= place: Pater system, November 11, 2179 =
"Gul Boluwatife, I inform you that all forces are ready to go." - said an aide on the artillery cruiser of the Yoruba Union. Now all surviving convoy ships were surrounded by more than 600 Arcturus Coalition ships. The vast majority of them are Geth ships, who provided full support and huge numbers of ships, and the squadron from System Alliance and the Quarian Republic, who were tasked with observing the situation.
Gul will breathe a sigh of relief and smile to himself. He fled here to survive the SUS attack and found allies who sent several hundred ships and millions of soldiers with full equipment. Okay, they're combat platforms, not soldiers, but Boluwatife couldn't see the difference between the two.
"Gul?" - asked the adjutant, a little surprised by the behavior of his commander.
"Don't worry, I was just thinking." - Gul replied - "Tell the Coalition forces, that we will move as soon as I give the signal."
The adjutant saluted and left. Moments later, Gul put on his uniform and arrived at the bridge.
"Gul, we're getting a message from Coalition forces." - said the communications officer.
"Connect" - Gul said and the screen split into 3 windows with Quarian, Human and Geth.
"I understand that all the ships are ready?" - asked Captain Mamoru Kodai, who commanded the System Alliance flotilla.
"That's right." - Gul replied. - "Now, as planned, we will start the journey to the Zemi system, from where we will connect with another convoy that was supposed to fly over there. Then we will all go to the homeworld of Amare, where the main forces of the alliance gather, after which we will be assigned to the appropriate fronts."
"Have your people been informed that we will come there?" - Quarian asked.
"Yes." - Gul said.
"Boluwatife-Gul, you haven't yet communicated the exact numbers of your forces over Amare's homeworld. We understand reasons, but as allies, we should know at least that." - Geth said.
"The truth is, neither do I know it." - Gul replied - "Only the highest-ranking officers know the exact number, but I would bet on at least 1,000 ships. After all, it is the homeworld closest to the territory of SUS and its allies. Additionally, it is the only place where Amare Battleships can be manufactured, which are the only ships capable of stopping the SUS Super Fortress main gun."
"All right." - Kodai said - "We should go now."
"I agree." - the quarian said.
"Right." - said Gul - "Open the channel to the entire fleet."
After a while, she heard a quick confirmation of the open channel with the entire armada and ordered the journey to the homeworld of Amare to begin.
= place: Arcturus Station, November 14, 2179 =
The site of the combined System Alliance military staffs was very serious as the admirals worked out the last details before the start of Operation Phoenix, the main task of which was to annihilate all Hegemony warships at the System Alliance border and seize key systems that could be used for a later offensive. Of course, most of the admirals were only in the form of a hologram and organized their own fleets.
"Our 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th fleet together with SDF support is already in position, waiting only for the last supplies and transport ships with Army troops, and we can start our offensive." - said the Adjutant.
"What's the Batarian situation?" - asked Fleet Admiral Grissom, commander in chief of all System Alliance forces and leader of the 1st fleet, also known as the Home Fleet.
"We have confirmation that they have assembled 7 fleets and have reactivated a number of ships from their Mothball Fleet, and the pirates who will side with them. In total, they currently have around 4 dreadnoughts, 300 cruisers, and 1,000 frigates on the border, plus a pirate force, which is another 1000 ships. We have confirmation that the Geths intercepted a total of 18 different attempts to attack our borders by the forces of Terminus since the declaration of war."
"Okay, how's our situation with our Mothball Fleet?" - Grissom asked.
The Mothball Fleet System Alliance are mostly ships used by Mars during the Second Inner Planet War. For political reasons, this fleet was never included in the official System Alliance fleet, but given the numerical superiority of the Batarians, it was decided to reactivate it once again.
"The work is going pretty fast." - said the Adjutant - "By the end of the month, most ships should be ready for action. But there is one problem who will command it."
Then the door opened and an older man stood in it and said - "I'll take care of it." -He had a large white beard, and on the uniforms, he had an insignia denoting his rank. Everyone in the room immediately recognized the person and saluted, even Admiral Grissom, who should technically be of the highest Rank.
"Admiral Fleet Okita, sir." - Grissom said without thinking.
"Relax, Grissom, now you have a higher rank." - Juuzou Okita replied.
"I know, but the old ones just die slowly." - Grissom said with a smile - "But you shouldn't be retired."
"I made a quick return of her as soon as I learned that there was no chance of a peace with the Batarians and that there was no experienced officer to command the fleet."
"Sir, we are honored to see you." - Hackett said.
"You don't have to salute an old veteran like me all the time, and now if you can introduce me to the situation in detail, I only know the Mothball Fleet situation and nothing else." - Okita said.
"We were just about to get into the details." - said Admiral Jessica White in command of the 9th fleet.
"Back to the topic." - General Craig said.
"So continuing." - Grissom said - "The 4th fleet with the support of 50 SDF ships will attack the 26th Hegemony fleet. According to intelligence, there are quite a few Mothball Fleet ships there, so expect the enemy to have an advantage of 2:1 in numbers. Next comes the 5th fleet. As it has already suffered some casualties in the Battle of Elysium, it will be assigned 70 SDF ships. His mission was to attack the 25th which was due to join forces with the 13th. However, they don't have the support of any pirate ships, so they should only outnumber you by 50-60 ships. Then comes the 6th Fleet to attack the 4th Hegemony Fleet, which is expected to carry a dozen or so pirate ships at best, will not be assigned the rare SDF ships. The 7th fleet will launch an attack on the 18th Hegemony fleet, which is stationed over a heavily fortified garden with 100-150 Mothball Fleet ships. It will be assigned 100 SDF ships, but they will mainly serve as the escort of the ground forces that are going to the planet. Then comes the 9th Fleet to attack the 8th Hegemony Fleet over the other World Hegemony Garden. This planet has a relay that connects the outer and inner territories of the Hegemons, prompting the expectation of a rapid strengthening of the Hegemony forces, so 9th will get 130 SDF ships, but again, most of them will be used to escort transport ships. If the war continues, it will be our main base for attacking the internal systems of the Hegemony. In the end, an especially overlooked 8th fleet. You will attack Torfan. Since this is the main pirate base, we anticipate at least one Hegemony fleet and from 500 to even 800 pirate ships. Additionally, in one of the earlier skirmishes in the nearby system, several SDF ships that were to be assigned to the 8th were damaged or destroyed. Therefore, the decision was made to send 250 SDFs instead of the original 170 and to send 7 instead of 4 Enterprise-class aircraft carriers. This, together with the aircraft carriers in the fleet, will make a total of 10. If we count the other ships that have their own fighters on board, there will be over 3,000 fighters."
"In total, nearly 700 navy main ships, 600 SDF ships, and 2,000 transport ships will take part in Operation Phoenix. Including confiscated civilian ships, transporters will be carrying 16 armored and 29 infantry divisions. This will total over a million people in the first wave. It will be the largest operation in human history. Do you have any questions or concerns?"
"Sir, won't putting that many resources into one operation make us vulnerable to attack?" - the admiral of the fourth fleets asked.
"You're right, so we must begin Operation on November 16. A few days later, and the Hegemony fleets will be too large to launch a successful attack." - Grissom replied.
"Do we have permission to use our own FTL technology?" - asked the admiral of the 8th Fleet.
"Yes, and everything else, as long as it fit the rules of the war." - Grissom said.
"Won't such a stretch of our forces expose our supply lines to enemy attacks?" - asked the admiral of the 5th Fleet.
"Unfortunately, yes, which is why it is so important to destroy all Hegemony forces on the spot. If we cause sufficiently high losses, they will not be able to carry out rare operations until the end of the month. Then our Mothball Fleet should be fully revived and keep our supply lines safe. In addition, all shipyards were redirected to the war effort and accelerated the production of previously ordered ships, as well as repairing already damaged ones. At the end of the month, the first batch of ships will be ready, allowing us to launch our next offensive." - Grissom said.
"Will all this 'rebellion' support us in this operation?" - Okita asked.
"Unfortunately not, while their additional ships would be very useful to us, the government doesn't want a formal alliance, because it would be a terrible political mess and would turn it into a full-blown total war." - Grissom replied.
Then he waited a moment, and as no one spoke, he ended the meeting and everyone went back to finishing their preparations for Operation Phoenix, which would make Humanity rise from the massive losses over Elysium and burn the Hegemony fleets in its path.
