Mass Effect is the property of Bioware. 20th Century Fox owns the Alien/Predator franchise.
!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!
July 18, 2228, human reckoning
HNV Primarch's Pride, LV-758
"Are they the same design?"
"No captain, not exactly, but there are similarities," Lieutenant Tirius studied her display. "Utilitarian, no effort at aesthetics, I would say they come from the same source."
"I was afraid of this. Either they have a base nearby, or these ships were already underway before the battle. I suppose it doesn't really matter right now. They must have spotted the wreckage, so they know at least some of their people were killed." Livestian though for a moment. The odds were three against four; three-and-a-half against four, if he committed Talon's Claw, his remaining frigate. Not great odds, especially with his fighter strength severely reduced, but not insurmountable either. The last group of ships they had encountered had been underpowered for their size and had not carried any fighters. If these ships were similarly handicapped, he could still win.
"No matter what happens, we must make sure that word gets back to Palaven. Can we avoid a battle?"
"Lieutenant Tirius looked at the numbers. "Unlikely, sir. They are coming in at high speed and will almost certainly overtake use before we can reach FTL, especially if we wait until our shuttles are docked, and we'll be in the worst possible position: with the enemy directly behind us."
"I'm not leaving anyone behind." Livestian came to a decision. "Bring all small craft back on board, including the fighter patrol, and turn directly toward the aliens. We will wait until everyone's been recovered, then fight our way out of the system. Tell Claw to stay clear of the battle. One frigate is not going to make too much of a difference and she must be able to get the news out if we are overwhelmed."
USM Osawa
In Osawa's combat operations centre admiral van Buren and his chief of staff waited as the first reports came in.
"Four ships confirmed, admiral. Looks like three destroyers and a frigate."
Van Buren looked at the plot. The three destroyer-sized ships were forming op in a vertical triangle, facing his ships, while a swarm of small craft converged on them for recovery. The frigate was moving away from them, though at a relatively low speed. "Send out a new flight of drones and scan the rest of the system. If there are any more ships I want to know it the moment they show themselves."
"Admiral, we're being hailed, or at least they are sending us something. Should we respond?"
van Buren snorted. "Now they want to talk? I don't think so. I'm not going to sit still here and allow them time to come up with a battle plan. Captain Shen, you may proceed."
"Yes sir." Shen looked at his screen. The range was too long for effective mass accelerator fire. Fortunately, the USM had provided its navy with an alternative method of engagement. "Send signal: USM Osawa to all ships. Weapons free, proceed as planned."
On the bottom of the hull of each destroyer, massive doors opened, exposing the deadly cargo within to open space. A brief firing of thrusters and four missiles were expelled from each ship. Once clear of their mother ships their primary drives ignited, accelerating them toward their targets, only to burn out within seconds. Once the first stage drives burned out they separated from the missiles, which continued on the path toward their targets. Behind them, the destroyers continued on their own attack vectors.
HNV Primarch's Pride
"Captain, there is no response. I don't think they're here to talk, even if they could understand us."
"Multiple launches!"
"Fighters?" So far the aliens had not shown any such craft but perhaps this new ship-type carried them. In that case, he might have to redeploy his own fighters and face the possibility that he would have to leave them behind when jumping to FTL.
"No captain, they look more like missiles, big ones." The sensor specialist cursed. "We've lost them, sir. They disappeared off the scanners."
Livestian hesitated. Nobody used missiles in ship-to-ship combat these days. GARDIAN laser defences were simply too effective, besides the missiles would be unable to penetrate the shields. While a large missile with a sufficiently powerful warhead could, in theory, still be deadly, naval architects were in agreement that designing and building such weapons was a waste of resources, not to mention that incorporating them in a ship would take up too much internal space, which could be used more effectively. But they don't seem to have fighters! The thought suddenly occurred to him. If a cruiser-sized ship carried no fighters, it would save a lot of internal space, which could be used for other purposes.
"Engage the missiles as soon as you can re-acquire them. Lieutenant Tirius?"
"Yes, captain."
"We'll proceed on the assumption that these ships don't carry fighters. Adjust firing patterns accordingly and utilize all GARDIAN systems for missile defence."
-o-o-o-
Sixteen huge missiles sped towards their targets. Their initial drives had burned out within seconds of launch. Now they would coast ballistically until they reached engagement range. ASAT missiles had a history that dated back to the early days of space exploration. For most of humanity's expansion in space they had been the primary weapon of all human warships. Starting as simple guided missiles they had evolved into something more: effectively they had become small, unmanned, ships. Protected by stealth systems and guided by the latest in both passive and active sensors they coud be relied upon to bring a deadly payload to their target through almost any kind of active, or passive, defence. However, their edge had steadily decreased as defensive laser systems improved, forcing them to detonate further from their targets or risk destruction. Then had come the discovery of element zero and with it the introduction of effective energy shields. Although the introduction of a tiny element zero core could greatly increase their acceleration, it had seemed as though the days of the ASAT missiles were over. Unable to penetrate a shield without breaking up, and with the effectiveness of their warheads severely reduced if they detonated outside the shields, they had been forced to yield their function of primary anti-ship weapon to the mass accelerators. Still, too much time, money, and effort had been spent on their design and development to simply throw them out. The navy had sought a new function for them and found one, but it had never been tested in actual combat, until now.
On board the missiles passive sensors scanned the space ahead of them, tracking the targets and measuring the likelihood of detection. This was arguably the most crucial function of the onboard computers. Coasting along at constant velocity, and with all active transmissions shut down, the ASAT missiles were fiendishly hard to detect, but at the same time, if they were detected, they would be sitting ducks for any active defence mechanism. Therefore, the computer had to estimate when the target was most likely to reacquire the missiles. At that moment, stealth mode would have to be dropped and the missiles would go active.
The computers didn't get it quite right. Suddenly, multiple active emitters locked on to several of the missiles and, before they could respond, laser beams shot out of the target ships. They missed, adjusted their aim, and fired again. Three out of the sixteen missiles vanished, but even in their deaths, they fulfilled a final function, for the remaining thirteen were instantly made aware that concealment had been lost and dropped all pretence at stealth. Secondary stage thrusters flared up, accelerating the missiles toward their targets at the same time that their onboard jamming systems, which had used the time spent flying toward their targets to analyse the enemy sensors, suddenly filled space with fake targets. It was only for a moment before the targeting systems readjusted, but combined with the sudden acceleration it was sufficient to break the target lock.
On board the turian cruisers, gunners and electronic warfare specialists struggled frantically to reacquire their targets. Their GARDIAN lasers fired again and again, but their effectiveness had been severely reduced. Still, as the distance decreased, targeting solutions improved and one by one the incoming missiles exploded.
Inside the remaining missiles, the computers had entered a new decision loop. On the one hand, they needed to get as close to the target as possible in order to increase the effectiveness of their payload. On the other hand, that would be pointless if none of the missiles survived to reach that range.
Eight missiles left... seven... The computers reached a final decision and signals flashed between the missiles to make sure they all agreed. One more missile flashed out of existence, then with what could almost be termed a form of electronic resignation, each onboard computer sent a final command and half a dozen warheads detonated simultaneously.
-o-o-o-
HNV Primarch's Pride
Disaster struck. One moment captain Livestian had been watching intently as his gunners engaged the enemy missiles, the next-
"Nuclear detonation! Sensors are off-line!"
Livestian could see the latter part for himself. All across the bridge, haptic displays flickered as their input disappeared.
"Report!"
"Captain, the missiles detonated." Lieutenant Tirius glanced at her own display as she tried to analyse what little data she had. "They used some kind of nuclear warhead with a lot of radiation and massive EMP. It overloaded the sensors completely. They're resetting, but it'll take time and some of the receivers may have been burned out completely.
USM Osawa
Admiral van Buren had mixed feelings as he looked at the result of the missile strike. They had detonated within effective range of their targets, but the aliens had managed to reduce their number by about two-thirds before they reached that point. That was bad news for future engagements, not only for the continued effectiveness of ASAT missiles, but also for fighter pilots, once the USM brought its carriers into action. Still, they had gained a lot of information on the aliens' passive and active defences that would come in useful later and the enemy's active sensors seemed to have shut down at least for the moment.
"All ships, maximum acceleration. Use all active EW systems to keep their sensors down.
-o-o-o-
The four destroyers bore down on their targets behind a wall of electronic noise. The turian sensors, which had still not recovered from the nuclear detonation, were overloaded again and started to reset. Unfortunately for them, they had run out of time. Van Buren had deliberately ordered his gunners to hold their fire during the approach, which allowed his gunners to refine their targeting solutions as much as possible. Desperate fire from the three turian vessels slashed through his formation, but most of it missed. There were a few hits, of course, for electronic warfare could only do so much, and humans shields flared under the impacts, but it was simply not enough.
Four spinal mass accelerators fired as one, their fire distributed over two targets.
-o-o-o-
HNV Primarch's Pride
The ship shook as the concentrated fire of two aliens vessels slammed into its shields. As before, the alien mass accelerators seemed to be less powerful than what an equivalent turian design would produce and for a moment it appeared that the shield would hold. However, the aliens had compensated to a certain extent with a higher rate of fire and the shields flared as they absorbed round after round. It was simply too much and alarms flashed on the bridge as mass accelerator slugs tore into the hull.
"Captain! Range is closing: They're going to pass us."
"Stand by for broadside engagement! All weapons, fire at will!"
-o-o-o-
The two formations interpenetrated and broadside guns exchanged fire in the instant that they could be brought to bear. Under the circumstances neither force was particularly accurate, the turian targeting sensors had still not recovered completely and the relative velocity was simply too great for either side. Still, both sides managed to score hits. By now two of the turian cruisers had been stripped of their shields, which more than compensated for the more powerful turian weapons.
Out of four human destroyers, three managed to keep their shields up despite the turian fire. The fourth took several direct hits, destroying part of her sensor array and disabling one of her secondary mass accelerators, but the integrity of the hull remained intact. The turians didn't fare so well. One of the cruisers, which still had active shields, took only a few hits that were easily shrugged off, but the other two took the full force of the attack directly on their already damaged hulls and new alarms flashed as both suffered multiple hull breaches.
The moment that the two formations passed each other, each of the human destroyers began to rotate around is own vertical axis, allowing the main thrusters to contribute directly to the deceleration and bringing their spinal cannons to bear again even as the range opened.
-o-o-o-
HNV Primarch's Pride
Livestian closed his eyes in despair as the damage reports came in. They had managed to inflict some damage on one of the alien ships, but two of his cruisers, including his own flagship, had been badly hurt in the process. Already the enemy was turning, decelerating sharply to stay within engagement range and bringing the full weight of their main batteries back into action. If he did the same and came around for another pass it was unlikely that any of his cruisers would survive. There was simply no way to win this battle. It was time to save what could be saved.
"Signal all ships: Scatter and accelerate to FTL. Carry word to the hierarchy."
USM Osawa
"Admiral, they're scattering."
"Split our formation. Pursue and destroy targets alpha-1 and alpha-2."
"Sir, that means the third cruiser is going to get away. There is no way we'll be able to overtake her."
"I know, Shen.' Van Buren shrugged. "We cannot prevent word from getting back to the aliens anyway; that frigate's already on its way out of the system. As for destroying the third cruiser, it's not worth the damage we would take if we fought those ships one on one."
-o-o-o-
For the second time in less than a week LV-758 was host to a deadly race, and this time the turians were losing. It was a fundamental problem with warship design, which focused primarily on forward firing spinal weapons. In a pursuit, all the advantages were with the pursuer, who could use his main battery, while the pursued could only fire back with secondary guns, if at all. The turian cruisers fled as fast as they could, relying on electronic jamming and random course changes to throw off the enemy targeting, but it was simply not enough. With two destroyers pursuing each cruiser the humans could coordinate their fire, compensating for the turian manoeuvres, and no amount of jamming could compensate completely for the massive disbalance in available firepower.
One of the cruisers suddenly veered of course, one of its thrusters disabled by a lucky hit. Unable to continue running the turians turned their ship around, bringing their primary armament in action again. A short, furious exchange of fire followed and hull plating on one of the human destroyers shattered under the impact of multiple hits at short range, but in the end it was for nothing. The human return fire sheared one of the 'wings' of the turian ship completely off, sending it spiralling out of control as half of its maneouvering thrusters failed. The human ships simply passed the helpless vessel, pouring broadside fire into it as they went by, then turned around for another firing pass, but it was no longer necessary. The turian ship was adrift in space, all weapons silent.
By now the unpursued ships had reached the edge of the system, well out of range of any possible pursuit, but their commanders hesitated to jump to FTL. Through their drones, they could still observe the final stage of the battle as Primarch's Pride suddenly stopped accelerating. By now the flagship was no more than a wreck trailing debris and atmosphere from more than a dozen hull breaches, and a sudden spike in the energy readings showed that her element zero core had destabilized. The pursuers, clearly observing the same telltale signs, refrained from closing but still poured more fire into the dying ship. For a moment it seemed that, like the other cruiser, she would simply end up as a dead hulk in space when, suddenly, a searing flash of light overloaded all sensors. By the time the observers regained their vision, no trace of the flagship could be found.
!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!
According to the Alien Wiki ASAT missiles have fragmentation warheads, but that didn't seem to be very efficient against a shield, so I found a new use for them. I wanted to come up with a reason that the ME universe doesn't seem to use missiles against ships, but at the same time have a reason that humans still have them. Note: EMP would be limited in space, but could still work due to direct impact of radiation on exposed electrical systems. I don't expect it to actually take out a warship, but it could trip a lot of circuit breakers in sensors and navigation systems just when you cannot afford it; and of course, a massive radiation burst could simply destroy a sensor, depending of the kind of filters you have in place.
aDarkOne: Yes, van Buren is overconfident. He thinks he's Bill Halsey in a starship (emphasis on 'thinks'), plus he has a personal agenda concerning naval policy. There's an irony to it: his career stalled for political reasons, but in a military sense that may be a good thing: he shouldn't be promoted further anyway. I expect he will become the centre of historical dispute: some people admire him as a good tactician, others denounce him as a loose cannon who caused the war to escalate.
timedraven117: You can hide underground, assuming you're deep enough (say 5 km or so) and that you can afford to wait until you can dig your way out, but you've lost control of whatever forces you were commanding. It can work for a civilian bombshelter, but not for an HQ.
Eipok: No centralized HQ at all could work. It's inefficient but less vulnerable. You can also try to build a mobile headquarters and keep it moving around in an unpredictable pattern. Any attempt at ramming with relativistic speed would rely on precise knowledge of the target's location. Actually, with the Alien style FTL drive you can build a huge ship that can serve as an HQ. It'll be slow compared to ME style ships, but at least it can move. I'll have to think about that a bit. Maybe the USM will learn from this situation and invest in such a platform.