Chapter 32

Garnizon I I , Zoloch Sector

The situation was not looking good for Earth's fleet. Harrington and Johnson had three Revenge's, the Revenge, Iowa, and Warspite, which was Harrington's flagship. There was also a capture I, the Emancipator. Two Heavy Carriers were also present, the Lexington and Ark Royal. Half a dozen cruisers, four Los Angeles Class and two Halsey Class. For smaller combat ships there were 14 Destroyers, 27 frigates, and 40 corvettes. The Free Confederacy fleet stationed there had mostly gone with Admiral Gorky, but there were still a number of ships left. One Providence Destroyer, one recusant light destroyer, two Munificiant Frigates, an old Trade Federation Core Ship that acted as a carrier, two Dreadnaught Heavy cruisers, and nearly two dozen smaller ships including smaller cruisers, frigates, and corvettes. All told this came out to be just over 120 ships, which was larger than the fleet they were about to confront. However, they were lacking behind in firepower, with maybe 6 of the Fleet's ships able to go toe to toe with the Star Destroyers. Even if they could win, it would likely be at a heavy cost. But they still had a few tricks up their sleeve.

One was starfighters. While the Imperial ships had nearly 1,10 fighters combined, these were poor when faced with earth's missile-armed fighters due to a lack of E C M, or electronic countermeasures. There were nearly 1200 of Earth's fighters as well as several hundred bombers who could be used to devastating effect against capital ships. That didn't even count the Free Confederacy's force of fighters, which was about the same in numbers as Earth's force, though lacking anti fighter missiles currently the ranks of Vulture Droid Fighters were more maneuverable than practically any fighter in the galaxy, with the exception of some of the Jedi Orders old fighters. Already half of Earth's fighters formed a massive combat air patrol around the large fleet and would be joined by more and more as time went on.

The other advantage was the five defensive platforms in the system, one of the larger models of Carden class as well as four Golan class, all of which had been fully repaired since the last battle about three months ago. These were bristling with weapons, from large turbolasers and ion cannons to smaller point defense guns and missile tubes. Johnson and Harrington both agreed the fleet should retreat and take advantage of the massive stations, which would give them extra firepower in the upcoming fight. It would also allow the fighter's room to pick off the opposing ones at the other end of the battlefield with their missiles, meaning they would not be harmed.

Johnson could see the Imperial ships launching thei and heading forwards to attack his fleet. They had already moved their fleet back to behind the screen of the Golan's and now they just had to let them come to him.

Newly promoted Major David Davis, callsign "Deadlock" sped through space in his F-1500b fighter, approaching the mass of Imperia fighters. It was the largest group of them he had ever seen. The commander, air group (or CAG for short) of the revenge would once again be in command of all of Earth's fighters during the battle, which constituted well over a thousand space frames. He was leading them close to the Imperial fighters, and he just wanted to ensure the fighters got out of the defensive screen of the Lancer Class Frigates, which would shoot down any missiles that would come in a range of its deadly quad heavy laser cannons.

"All fighters, our goal is to eliminate the Imperia fighters so that we don't have to worry about being swarmed by them. They seem to be engaging the vast majority of their strength here, so each of us will be firing at least one anti-fighter missile, maybe a second. The auto-targeting system is working well, fire on my command. He waited several seconds to verify that the ships were out of the protective screen of the lancers and ordered the missiles to be fired. Over 700 missiles went flying to the mass o 's, with almost all of them hitting their targets. A few managed to be shot down or were dodged, but this was rare. In a single move, he had eliminated over 2 / 3 ds of the attackin 's. Several moments later, he ordered some of the fighters to fire another wave of missiles, which eliminated most of the survivors. The Imperial fleet had less than a hundre 's left, mostly combat air patrols and reserve fighters to replace the losses of the main force. However, they were predicted from a missile attack by the Lancers, who would make getting close to the Imperial Fleet very costly for both fighters and pilots.

Admiral Picot's decision had been stupid, as he had already known that Earth used missiles extensively in an anti fighter role. He had assumed that there would not be nearly as many deployed since he had the element of surprise, thus falling into a critical military mistake. He had assumed what his enemy would do instead of preparing for what he could do. Deadlock thought that it was odd that an officer of his rank would make a mistake like that. However, he was making good use of his lancer class frigates to guard against fighter attack. Th of the revenge needed guidance for what to do next, so he put out a comm to both Admirals Harrington and Johnson.

"Admirals, I have eliminated nearly all of th fighters, the remaining ones at this time are not a threat to us and are staying behind the range of screens of those lancer's quad laser cannons. All of my fighters are armed with at least one and sometimes two depending on the loadout anti-ship missiles. Attacking the Imperial fleet would be possible but only done successfully with great casualties due to the anti-fighter power of those lancer's quad laser cannons, but I guess it could help slow the fleet's advance. What are my orders?" He asked over the comm line.

Both admirals thought for a moment. "Attack and launch your missiles at a greater range than the Lancer's guns, then retreat for a reload. Focus on the Star Destroyers, you won't lack the ability to do so." Johnson ordered. Deadlock broke off his defensive course and headed for the Imperial fleet.

"All fighters, we're going to go and attack the Imperial fleet at long range with anti-ship missiles. We will be joined by all of Earth's bombers that have been deployed so far, as well as the forces the Free Confederacy brought along. We won't be getting up close and personal with it to avoid being shot down by those anti-fighter frigates but we will all make it back. Once we finish we will go back to our ships, reload, and repeat the process until the fleets make into close range with one another. Squadron leaders, do you understand your missions?"

"Yes sir." The over 100 leaders that each led a squadron of 12 fighters said.

The mass of Earth's fighters and bombers was augmented by the fleet of strike craft from the Free Confederacy that was mostly using droid fighters, though a variety of manned fighters and bombers including newer models of the Z -95 headhunter, ancient Cloakshape fighters, Clone Wars era ARC -170 's and Y wing and H 6 tempest bombers, along with an assortment of other craft. While they would attack with an assortment of torpedoes, missiles and bombs, they would have to release them at close range as these weapons systems only had limited targeting capabilities. They had already left, and were going to go wide and execute a flanking attack on the Imperial fleet while Earth's fighters met them head on. At worst, it would split the lancer's into defending in both directions which would let more missiles get through, and at best they would totally split the point defense of the fleet allowing one group to land a devastating strike on the Imperial fleet.

Each of the F-1500a and b fighters carried either one or two anti-ship missiles, all of which were more than capable of causing large damage to the Imperial ships at the numbers they would be fired on. While not designed with the primary role of attacking enemy ships, it could do so effectively

The BA-1000 "Havoc" bomber was larger, with its somewhat triangular shape in a similar aesthetic to several modern-day stealth bombers. In the first battle of Earth when the Empire first came, they proved their potential by almost single-handedly destroying a 600 meter Imperial Vindicator Class Heavy Cruiser. This had encouraged more production, and now hundreds were in service. They were fast when compared to several other common bombers in the galaxy. Four forward medium laser cannons and two dual guns mounted in automated turrets provided a defense against enemy fighters. This was augmented by several air to air missiles. But inside the bomber was a large ordnance bay that in this case held four heavy anti-ship missiles per craft. It, like the other Earth fighters, was hyperspace capable, which meant it could be used to devastating effect in hit and run missions against Imperial fleets and installations. They had already done so in the past three months and were responsible for the majority of kills in these raids. There were currently two models, the original version also known as the A variation, and the B, which had a few minor improvements including better avionics and two additional dual laser cannon turrets for defense against fighters on the side of the craft, giving no blind spots where a fighter could attack it without being fired at.

Soon the craft had launched their missiles at the Imperial fleet. While with the help of the six anti-fighter frigates they had managed to shoot down many of the missiles, a large number still made it through. However, with the six lancer's distracted, the Free Confederacy force launched their flanking attack. While many were shot down once the frigates readjusted, the damage had already been done.

Two Star Destroyers had been destroyed or at least turned into wrecked hills of a ship that now mostly lacked sublight engines and a working hyperdrive, and lacked any meaningful defenses or weapons. They would be scuttled later that day. Two other Star Destroyers were more intact but still combat ineffective, essentially disabling them. With some sublight engines still operating, they retreated back to the hulls of their comrades. The othe 's had not suffered much damage if any damage and were therefore still fully combat-capable. One Vindicator, two Arqetens, and a Nebulon B were destroyed as well, with some others in their ranks damaged. However, none of the Lancers had been damaged, as even if they had been targeted they would have shot down most of the incoming missiles. These anti-fighter frigates were vulnerable to attacks by capital ships as they were designed extremely specialized for only one purpose, but at this point in the battle getting any warships close to them would be suicidal. The Empire was protected by both a clear anti-ship and anti-fighter defense, which made it harder to break either one. The Empire was learning, Deadlock would give them that.

Due to being out of the range of any of the Imperial ships, none of Earth's fighters had taken any damage. However, the fighters of the free confederacy had taken not an insignificant amount of damage. Over 200 of their small craft had been destroyed by the Imperials, both manned and unmanned (though most had been unmanned). The damage to the Imperial fleet had been moderate, but this was only the first wave.

Across Earth's fleet, starfighters landed on their motherships to be rearmed with missiles. The deck crews worked quickly and diligently, every second counted. Since they had engaged at a fairly short range, Earth's fighters and bombers only needed to have their anti-ship missiles replaced. Under other circumstances they would have been rearmed with anti fighter missiles as well but there was limited time before the Imperial fleet closed the distance. They needed to get any strikes in that they could on the Imperials to even the odds.

The Free Confederacy fleet meanwhile had to refuel the droid fighters due to the limited fuel they possessed. While they were able to stay in flight far longer than their clone wars counterparts due to advances in fuel and battery technology, they were still only able to stay in flight for a few hours. Thankfully there were using a standardized, automated system to do so, which would speed up the process significantly.

The next strike was carried out by about 400 Earth fighters and 100 bombers as well as nearly 400 of the free confederacy strike craft. One advantage to the advancing Imperial fleet was that the fighters would not need to travel as far before attacking their targets, as they were getting closer. As the flank attack had already been used, the pilots decided to all launch a single forward-facing mass strike. This attack was not as effective as the first one but still did some damage. None of the star destroyers were destroyed, but one had been heavily damaged and almost all of the remaining had some sort of damage, even if it was light. The bigger victory was the destruction of smaller ships. Three Vindicators, half a dozen Arquetens, and four Nebulon B's were destroyed, and also many of the smaller ships were damaged. This would thin out the screen of protection the larger ships had.

Once again Earth's fighters had taken almost no losses as they were launching missiles from long range. However the Free Confederacy lost about 150 fighters, which was about half of the strength that was engaged in this part of the battle. They had been hesitant to engage in such missions that would lead to the large losses before, but the Admirals of Earth had promised the officer left in charge that they would replace any fighters lost with either droids ones they produced or manner ones that they had already been produced, such as the F 1500.

Once again the fleet of fighters began to make another strike with ones who had been rearming or refueling while the battle was going on. It was roughly the same size, and hopefully able to score some major damage to the fleet. But their strike was diverted to a new target as the battlefield changed.

A new force of ships jumped out of hyperspace, only seven of them. This was small for a fleet that would be reinforcing the Imperials, but when he saw the size of the ships he looked in fear. There were si and I I 's, and nothing smaller. But the ship they surrounded was one he had never seen before, and the largest ship he had ever seen. It was a Bellator Class Star Dreadnought, one of the largest ships fielded by the Imperial Navy. 7,200 meters in length, it was bustling with weapons from massive turbolaser to small point defense guns. Deadlock knew that the new Imperial fleet could take on the entire fleet that was over Garnizon right now. They needed to cause damage to it.

"Divert that strike to that dreadnought. Target only it." He ordered. His fighter was being rearmed with missiles so he could not participate in the current strike.