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A long one this time (at least for me.)
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HNV Righteous Fury, Shanxi system
The human fighters had retreated and were moving past the six warships that were slowly backing away, using their reverse thrusters while keeping their bows pointed toward the turian fleet.
General Desolas Arterius studied the tactical plot, while listening as one of his staff officers discussed the casualties. The first engagement had not gone well. The human fighters, being severely outnumbered, should have been swept away. Instead they had crippled three of his frigates and cost him more than ten percent of his total embarked fighter strength. It was not a good begin for the campaign. Still, the total losses were minor when compared with his fleet strength and did nothing to change the hopelessly lob-sided balance of force.
With a tingle tap of his talon, he activated a communication channel to one of the other dreadnoughts, the Force of Justice which carried general Oraka, his second in command.
"We seem to have underestimated their fighter strength."
"Quite so," Septimus Oraka looked rather thoughtful. "A curious tactic, though. I would have expected them to coordinate an attack between the fighters and the larger warships, rather than sending in the fighters alone. One wonders why they chose this approach."
Desolas' Mandibles twitched slightly as he tried to hold on to his temper. Although Desolas outranked him, general Oraka was actually a more experienced soldier. Oraka had carefully refrained from commenting on Desolas' rather less than successful response to the attack, but he could almost here the other general thinking it. "It doesn't really matter. They don't seem capable of following up with another attack. The fighters are retreating, as are the warships, and from the look of things, they are evacuating their orbital base. We'll proceed as planned. I'll seize control of the planet while you hunt down the fleet."
"Ah, yes. You know, we could just let them go. They lack the strength to interfere with the landing, so it doesn't really matter whether we destroy them, or they retreat through the relay.
"No!" This time Desolas' anger got the better of them. "That is NOT an acceptable solution. We need them to understand that they cannot win. That will not happen if we let the majority of their naval force escape unharmed. Besides, this species will have to be integrated into galactic society sooner or later. Better that they learn straight away what it means to defy the hierarchy. Now carry out my orders."
He cut the link.
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
"You've heard our esteemed leader, we'll continue according to plan. It seems this is a time for learning lessons."
General Oraka studied the plot where he could see the small human defense force slowly retreating toward the relay.
"I wonder who will learn the most."
USM Osawa
"Admiral, status change."
Van Buren looked at the plot. The turian fleet was splitting up. The majority of the warships, including two of the biggest ships was pulling ahead of the rest.
"Analysis?"
"Sir, it looks like the smaller group is going for a zero-zero intercept with the planet. The others are accelerating, presumably to catch us."
"Splitting their forces? Well, I suppose they have the numbers for it. What is the status of the evacuation?"
"Almost done sir. The last group is boarding the RDVs now."
"Damn! They're behind schedule." The admiral scanned the plot again. In theory his destroyers were fast enough to avoid action, but, with the evacuation of the orbital station not yet complete, he would either have to abandon some of the fleeing base personnel to their fate, or risk a direct engagement at ten-to-one odds. Fortunately, the turians were moving slowly, ponderously. If van Buren had been in their position he would have thrown his smaller ships forward, have them make quick hit-and-run strikes at the enemy in order to cripple them and slow them down so that the larger ships could finish them off. The turians seemed to insist on keeping their whole fleet together. Not a bad concept when facing a force of similar strength, but rather pointless under the circumstances.
"Keep us backing up until we're at the station. If anyone is still on board by that time, they get left behind. What is the status on our frigates?"
"All in the outer system and hiding, sir. No sign that the enemy has detected them."
"Good. We'll need some eyes in this system."
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
The humans warships were still backing up steadily, now moving past the orbital station. Well beyond them the remaining fighters had made rendez-vous with the fleeing transports. meanwhile the range was steadily coming down as the turian fleet could accelerate faster than the humans could reverse. General Oraka's eyes were glued to his tactical display. So far the human plan made sense. They had probably evacuated the orbital platform completely and now the transports, together with a light escort, were making for the mass relay at best possible speed. The evacuation had either started too late, or lasted longer than expected, so the transports would be hard-pressed to stay out of reach of his dreadnoughts and there was no way they could avoid contact with his smaller vessels. That was why the human warships were backing up, rather than turning away. If Oraka sent his frigates and cruisers ahead of his larger ships, they would have to advance straight into the fire of the humans' main guns. Considering their advantage in numbers they would win, but the humans would probably be able to inflict sufficient casualties that their transports would be safe.
Now things were changing. Unless the humans changed their stance, their warships would come within range of his dreadnoughts before they could reach the relay and there was no way they could stand up to that much firepower.
-o-o-o-
USM Osawa
Van Buren studied his display and didn't like what he saw. He had plotted several different courses for his destroyers and none of them would yield a satisfactory result. The evacuation had taken too long and forced him to let the turians come too close. Even if he turned away now and let his destroyers accelerate away under their main power there was no way for him to avoid action completely, at least not against the smaller ships, and he would be at a severe disadvantage. It was the same choice that he had force upon the aliens during his first engagement against them: a warship could either stand and fight using its main gun, or run away under main thrusters, but not both. In the first case, a more numerous force would surround the ship and overwhelm her, in the latter case it would mean a long stern chase with the pursuer using his main guns while the pursued could only reply with weaker weapons. Note to self, he though bitterly. The next generation of destroyers should either have frigate style engines that allow equal acceleration in both directions, or an additional spinal gun that can fire toward the stern. He grimaced. Both options had been discussed in theory and both had been dismissed as too expensive. Perhaps when this was over the navy would be able to reverse that decision.
"Captain Shen, bring us about on a new course, fifteen degrees off from a direct course to the relay. Have the squadron form up in wall formation: two high, three long, and stand by to engage with port batteries."
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
"They are turning away. Should we follow?"
General Oraka considered the situation. The new course would not allow the humans to evade action completely, his own fleet had too much of an initial speed advantage, but if they kept it, they would be able to accelerate away from him fairly quickly. But where would they go to... It only took him a moment to figure it out.
"Continue toward the relay. No matter how they maneuver, that is where they're ultimately going."
"General, they may have decided not to use the relay at all and just jump to FTL."
"No. There are no other base facilities in nearby systems. They have nowhere to go. Besides, if they stray too far from the transports, we can send our lighter units forward and wipe them out. They have to stay within range. This is not an escape, they're turning just enough to unmask their broadsides, that's all. Have the fleet spread out to make sure that we will be able to engage them even on a direct course for the relay."
-o-o-o-
USM Osawa
The turian fleet was spread out over a wide front, the two big ships in the centre and the small ones extending in the horizontal plane, advancing steadily toward the relay while the destroyers moved away at a shallow angle. For van Buren's destroyers it was a trade-off. On the one hand, it would allow them to use their broadside batteries, rather than their extremely limited rear-guns while still staying within range of the fleeing transports, but it would also increase the total engagement time and reduce the range even further once they turned back toward the relay.
Aboard the six destroyers electronic warfare technicians were trying to jam the fire control of the alien ships, but there were simply too many of them and one by one, each destroyers reported positive enemy target locks.
-o-o-o-
In space there really was no such thing as a 'maximum range' for any projectile weapon. The slug from a mass accelerator, once fired, simply continued onward until it hit something, anything, no matter how far away from the point where it had been launched, with the impact of a small nuclear explosion. That, as gunnery instructors used to say, was why sir Isaac Newton was the deadliest son-of-a-bitch in space.
In practice though, there was a limit, albeit a flexible one, imposed by the practical limits of a targeting sensor's performance against a fast moving object, the slight angular deviations of the slugs as a mass accelerator fired repeatedly, which caused them to spread out along a narrow, but still measurable, cone, and finally the fact that at longer range the target might be able to out-manoeuvre the projectiles, which, though fast, still needed a finite amount of time to reach their targets. Exactly what constituted 'maximum engagement range' depended on the characteristics of the weapon, the tactical situation, and the mood of whoever was in charge.
With an overwhelming advantage in numbers on his side, as well as an advantage in the power of individual weapons, general Oraka had decided not to keep the fleet's guns under central control, leaving it to each ship's captain to decide when they would open fire. The result was a small, but steadily increasing, stream of projectiles as ship after ship opened fire, testing their spinal cannons at their effective limit in the hope of refining their targeting solutions. The answer came in the form of a single volley, then another, and another as the retreating destroyers replied with their lighter broadside weapons.
Neither side was particularly successful; the range was still too large for effective fire control. However, as minute after minute passed, the frequency of hits started to rise. Two projectiles slammed into a destroyer, stripping it of part of its shields and forcing the ship to rotate in order to present its undamaged side to the incoming fire. A turian cruiser, through luck or skill, shook as half a dozen slugs slammed into its bow shields.
The range closed, slowly but steadily.
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
"Multiple hits on two cruisers. No major damage."
"And no sign of their missiles," the general commented. That was the one uncertain factor here. He had been concerned about the human anti-ship missiles ever since he had read the reports from captain Livestian's ill-fated patrol. Those things were an unknown factor and he had not had sufficient information to be sure that he could find an effective counter.
"Perhaps they did not get replacements after their battle with the 24th recon squadron, sir," one of the officers suggested.
"Perhaps, but I doubt it. You don't design a weapon that complex and expensive and then fail to build adequate numbers. besides, I doubt they shot off their full on-board supply in one salvo." He considered the situation. "I really would prefer to have a better feeling for those things before we get to close range. Let's try the following..."
-o-o-o-
USM Osawa
"Enemy frigates moving ahead of the main fleet. They're going for the transports; they have fighter cover."
Van Buren watched as the smaller enemy ships started to pull ahead of the main force. At their rate of acceleration, they would overtake the fleeing transports in short order. The rapid deployment vessels covering the transports might be able to fight them off, but not before they could target the transport ships, and on those tightly packed vessels, even a minor hull breach could lead to a massacre.
"Deploy ASAT missiles."
A total of twenty four missiles sped away from the destroyers, their primary drives propelling them toward an intercept point with the frigates.
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
"There they are. Now we'll see if my estimate was correct."
Sending the frigates out ahead had been a gamble, but a reasonable one. There were several warships with the human transports, but they were of the type encountered originally by recon squadron 24 and reported as lightly armed, despite being the size of cruisers. In addition, there were still about thirty undamaged fighters in a swarm around the human formation, but those were the same that had attacked the fleet earlier and they had not been resupplied with missiles. Oraka could deploy three times as many fighters as well as eight frigates. That would have to be enough, even if it came to an actual battle, which was not his intention.
The twenty-four missiles were coasting toward the intercept point, their primary drives having burned out shortly after launch in a repeat of the attack pattern that had been used during the second battle for Relay 314. However, circumstances were quite different. Instead of engaging an essentially stationary enemy they were now aiming toward a point in space in the hope that they, and their targets, would arrive at approximately the same time. Passive sensors scanned the space ahead, measuring relative velocities, waiting for the moment that they would reach attack range.
Aboard the frigates, the turian crews had noted the launch. They too had seen the data from the earlier battle and knew what was coming. On a pre-arranged signal, the frigates veered sharply off course, scattering in all directions. The targeting systems of the ASAT missiles noted the deviation and recalculated. The result was not good. The turian frigates were fast and the intercept angle was working in their favour. On their current course, the missiles would miss the turian formation completely. There was only one possible solution. As one the missiles lit off their secondary stage drives much earlier tan intended in the hope of correcting their approach vector. That could work, but it also revealed their position, much earlier than intended.
Aboard the missiles, electronic warfare systems activated in the hope of compensating for the lack of concealment, but that was only a partial fix. Turian targeting systems tracked the missiles as they approached, correlating data to eliminated false echoes and sensor ghosts.
At the maximum effective range, the GARDIAN lasers opened fire. The initial shots went wide, as had been expected, but they provided the fire-control systems with additional information, allowing the gunners to improve their targeting solutions.
One missile disappeared, then another, and another.
As the range dropped, the accuracy of the turian fire increased. The turian fighters, which had kept up with the frigates added their own weapons to the defence, accounting for several more missiles. Of the twenty-four ASAT missiles that had started the attack, only five made it to within striking distance of the frigates, of those only two managed to actually detonate, stripping away the shields on two frigates, but without doing serious damage.
Aboard his flagship, general Oraka looked on with satisfaction
"So, that did work. Still, bring the frigates back inside our point defense grid. I suspect those ships carry enough for at least one more salvo and I'd rather not waste ships if I can help it. They may have a way to compensate for such a maneuver. Make a note in the log. Frigates should be fast enough to evade human missile fire, if they have sufficient advance warning. Keep us on course for the relay and continue the engagement."
Shanxi orbit
The Shanxi naval station lay abandoned, all of its personnel gone. Still, the station was not completely dead yet. In its command centre the central computer was accumulating data.
Data point one: all human personnel had left the station.
Data point two: countdown to self destruct had been authorized, but not yet initiated.
Data point three: all point defence systems had been set to full automatic
Data point four: A large number of ships was approaching.
The on-board sensors registered the approaching vessels and compared them to its database, as it had done countless times before. Unfortunately, none of the entries seemed to match. Normally, the computer would have alerted a human operator, but without humans that was not an option.
At the very bottom of its database, the computer found a new entry. A directory, recently added to the system, that contained a small number of files, containing images and energy patterns. With all other options exhausted the computer opened the directory and started matching energy signatures. Result: 70 percent match, insufficient data. That was awkward, but not unexpected, and so the computer waited as the ships approached. Soon the ships were close enough for visual identification. The computer loaded the new images and matched them against existing images and wireframes. Again the result was less than satisfactory. This time the match was approximately 80 percent for some images, but zero for others. The computer queried its search routines:
Is a combination of 70 percent on energy and 80 percent on a limited fraction of the total sufficient to constitute a match?
The answer was simple.
Yes
Having matched the approaching ships to those in that particular directory, the computer found an instruction to open a particular command routine.
What is the distance?
The computer measured.
Acceptable
A final command line activated the station's short range transmitters and sent out a single command. In orbit around Shanxi, nearly a hundred receivers picked up the command and woke up.
-o-o-o-
HNV Righteous Fury
Desolas stared out of the bridge window as his flagship approached the planet. Far away general Oraka was still engaged in a running fight with the fleeing human warships, but he didn't envy his second in command the action. Naval battles were all well and good, but they would not bring victory in this campaign. That could only come with the conquest of the planet before him and Desolas would not surrender that particular task to anyone else.
"General?" One of his staff officers approached. "We're picking up some movement from satellites in orbit around the planet."
-o-o-o-
It had been a somewhat dubious idea from the beginning. Military planners, both naval and marine, had noted that Shanxi's ordnance stores held a considerable number of the large ASAT missiles that equipped admiral van Buren's destroyers. With each of the six destroyers only capable of holding eight of the massive missiles, the rest had been slated for destruction, rather than have them fall into enemy hands. Still, they represented a considerable amount of firepower. Not as much as in the old days, before the discovery of element zero and the introduction of effective energy shields, but enough to make anyone think twice of venturing near the planet if the missiles could be brought to bear. Unfortunately, Shanxi had never received the planet-mounted launchers that would have allowed general Williams to use such missiles to deny the enemy orbital dominance.
During one of the many brainstorming sessions that had followed the discovery of alien life, lieutenant Sosa, the naval liaison to general Williams staff, smarting from the feeling that the navy was effectively betraying the marines, had suddenly asked the crucial question: They have their own drives. Why do we need to launch them at all?
It had been a herculean task, but over the following days navy shuttles had taken the missiles out of storage and, one by one, towed them into geo-stationary orbit around Shanxi. There they would stay, dormant, looking like dead satellites to the outside observer, waiting for the activation signal. The plan was sound, but had two drawback: first of all, the missiles were supposed to receive an initial power surge from the launch system to start their systems. Hanging in orbit they had no such external power source. Fortunately, the considerable amount of redundancy built into the ASAT missiles meant that they had an auxiliary power-unit that could provide them with the necessary power, as long as they didn't have to sit in orbit for too long. The second problem was worse: there was no fire-control system in place. Originally, lieutenant Sosa had suggested using the destroyers to provide initial targeting information after they had launched their own missiles, but that would have required keeping the ships relatively close to the planet. Upon his return admiral van Buren had vetoed that plan. His experience in combat against the aliens had convinced him that the relatively small numbers of missiles that his ships could control at a time would simply not be enough to effectively overwhelm the defenses of a whole enemy fleet, and that the nearly one hundred ASAT missiles now riding in orbit would be wasted in small strikes while his destroyers were torn apart by enemy fire. Still, he liked the idea of firing the missiles, rather than just blowing them up, and had come up with another plan. After all, the internal guidance systems on board the missiles were among the most sophisticated ever designed. Surely they could be put to some use
Aboard each missile, the targeting computer woke up and scanned the sky around it using passive sensors. There were many active emission sources as well as a great number of drive signatures. The computers checked their internal IFF and found that it had been deactivated. Instead, there was a simple command:
All targets are hostile.
That made things simple.
The computers queried their telemetry links for external commands but found none.
That was strange, but not a problem.
The computers opened active communications and found each other.
That was expected. ASAT missiles were never launched alone.
Within a fraction of a second, each computer received the targeting data of all the others, building a complete picture of all the ships now approaching their position. A moment later, each processor had some up with its own judgment as to what attack profile should be followed, depending on target selection, relative speed and position and even a random factor that had been programmed into their system. This too was communicated to the others. Acting as a single network the computers adjusted their solution based on each others' planned attack profiles. It was strange that there was no input from outside their network, but it had been planned for in case of heavy electronic interference, or if a ship was destroyed at the moment of launching.
All of this had taken no more than ten seconds, then, acting as one, the ASAT missile lit off their primary drives and sped off toward their targets.
-o-o-o-
One moment all was quiet, the next it was chaos. Just as the turian ships were decelerating to enter orbit, nearly a hundred missiles that no one had spotted converged upon the turian fleet. Their attack was utterly unpredictable, with some missiles disengaging their drives and going ballistic while others kept on burning to reach maximum acceleration, trading stealth for speed. The carefully interlinked point defense grid fell apart as individual ships maneuvered wildly to avoid the oncoming missiles.
The GARDIAN lasers did quite well and dozens of missile vanished off the scanners, but there were simply too many of them, the distance was too short, and the attack was too unpredictable.
Four fighters, purely by accident found themselves in the way of the oncoming missiles and were wiped out without a trace. A single turian frigate, targeted by half a dozen missiles coming in from wildly diverging points, had its shields stripped away even as the massive EMP caused overloaded the circuits of its point defense system and the flash of nuclear explosions seared its sensors. That accounted for four missiles. The last two, finding no impediment to their attack decided to forgo a stand-off attack and closed to contact distance. Without warning the entire starboard side of the ship was ripped open and the wreckage of what had been a fighting ship only seconds earlier tumbled away, spilling crewmembers and debris. Two cruisers, finding themselves under a similar barrage, did only slightly better, their heavier point defense allowing them to destroy several missiles before they exploded. Still, one of them suddenly found itself missing nearly half of its thrusters and the other, though avoiding a major hull breach, had to stop all propulsion as most of its sensor burned out, leaving the crew with no idea where their ship was going.
Other ships did better, either because they had been farther away, targeted by fewer missiles, or because they were simply lucky. The fleet flagship, however, could make no such claims. In the vanguard of the turian fleet, it had been one of the closest targets, its sheer size drawing a correspondingly large fraction of the missiles and its ponderous bulk prohibited any attempt to maneuver clear.
Initially, it had been targeted by nearly thirty missiles. Two were destroyed by turian fighters who tried desperately to defend the admiral's ship. Three others were drawn away to attack nearby cruisers in the general confusion and eight more fell to the big vessel's GARDIAN batteries. That left fourteen missiles to reach attack range. In a way the Righteous Fury was lucky. If the missiles could have chosen an optimal attack pattern they could have detonated in sequence, with the first missiles blinding the point defense, the next stripping the shields and the last group attacking the bare hull. Fortunately for the ship and its crew, that did not happen. With no clear instructions and only a fraction of a second to decide, the on-board computers of the ASAT missiles decided they could not shield their own systems adequately from each others' explosion and, rather than risking a pointless fratricide, simply closed to minimum distance and detonated as one.
The explosion, which directly impacted the shields, was strong enough to shake the massive dreadnought from stem to stern and general Arterius found himself tossed to the ground as inertial compensators tried to keep the ship under control. Most of the shields on one side of the dreadnought were stripped away completely and half of the GARDIAN lasers were burned away completely. However, the hull withstood the impact with only two minor breaches.
-o-o-o-
"Well?" general Williams asked.
"One confirmed kill, one probable," Lieutenant Sosa answered, studying the data that was being sent from the abandoned orbital station. "Major damage to at least two more ships, including the big one. Several fighters destroyed, minor damage to other vessels."
USM Osawa, near the Shanxi relay
USM Osawa shook as another projectile slammed into her shields. By now all of the destroyers had taken damage and the number of hits was only increasing. Their return fire had damaged several of the turian pursuers, but it was simply not enough and with each new hit they lost more of their broadside armament.
"Admiral, we're approaching the turn-over point."
Van Buren had been dreading that message. It meant that they would have to change course and curve back toward the relay. Moreover, they would soon have to start decelerating in order to match speed with the relay and that mean that the turian fleet would be able to come even closer.
"Do we have a targeting solution on their largest vessels?"
"Yes, sir."
"Select one and launch all remaining ASATs. All twenty-four missiles on one target. I doubt we'll get many hits, but there is no point in letting them go to waste."
The admiral and his chief of staff looked at each other, both understanding the unspoken message: if they didn't launch the missiles now, they might well be lost in their launch bays, together with the destroyers.
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
"General, the enemy is turning back toward the relay... Missiles on approach!"
General Oraka was not particularly surprised at either message. The battered human warships would have to turn back to join up with the transports that were now approaching the mass relay. He had already resigned himself to the fact that he would not be able to overtake those transports, which didn't particularly interest them in any case. There was no way his dreadnoughts could move quickly enough to overtake them and he was not going to risk splitting up his fleet just to catch a couple of cargo vessels. As for the missiles, that was hardly a surprise. They had to fire them now or risk losing them together with the launch vessel. It was a pity that his previous trick would not work this time. There was no way the humans would waste the weapons on frigates that could probably evade them when there were other targets around.
Once again the ASAT missiles followed the established attack pattern, accelerating quickly, then coasting ballistically. This time, the approach vector was far more favourable, with the missiles and their target nearly directly toward each other, and the dreadnought was certainly not capable of evasive action. Turian fighters redeployed ahead of the main body in the hope of catching at least some of the missiles before they could strike, but they had to spread out over a wide front, waiting to see which ships the missiles would target.
This time all missiles managed to reach the optimal point before lighting off their secondary drives and charging toward a single dreadnought. The turian fighters converged, pouring fire into the general direction of the missiles and scoring multiple hits. Then the GARDIAN lasers took over, both from the dreadnought itself as well as the cruisers on its flanks. The missiles raced on, trying to close the distance before they were destroyed. Two lost the target due to either internal failure or the turian jamming systems and attacked a nearby cruiser, in the end that left only four to engage the original target, two of them detonating together to blind its sensors, the second pair exploding an instance later. The shields failed and collapsed, allowing the final remnant of the explosions to impact on the hull, but by then they had wasted most of their strength. Although several sensors were destroyed and at least one broadside cannon would have to be replaced, the hull withstood the explosion and the dreadnought continued on its course.
-o-o-o-
By now the engagement range had come down considerably. Mass accelerator fire flashed back and forth between the two formations, with both sides scoring hit after hit and the turian advantage in numbers was beginning to count. USM Themistocles, reeling from at least a dozen impacts on her unshielded hull fell out of formation, atmosphere spilling from her flank. The remaining five destroyers clung to their course, firing their remaining weapons in a desperate attempt to hold off the turians until they could reach the mass relay. There the survivors of Shanxi's fighter squadrons had formed up in a single formation guarding the transports as they prepared to make the jump to Arcturus.
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
"General, there has been a problem with the invasion force."
Oraka tore his gaze away from the plot and looked at the report. If turians had been capable of snorting he would have done so. Apparently, Desolas' little plan had run into yet another problem. Not much of a surprise. That was the sort of thing you could expect when you send an invasion force against an unknown enemy. In any case, there wasn't anything that he could do about it until he had finished with the human warships. As he watched the human transports started to enter the relay. that was a pity, but not really a concern. His chances of catching them were never high to begin with. The five remaining warships, now that was another matter. he might nit fully agree with general Arterius plans, but there was no denying that the loss of six such ships would certainly influence human thinking and, hopefully, convince them that they had no hope of standing against the might of the hierarchy. If it helped end the war quickly, then so much the better. If, that is, he could manage it.
By now his gunners had the range. The cruisers were scoring hit after hit and even the slow-firing weapons on his dreadnoughts, which were less than ideal for engaging fast-moving targets, were becoming effective and the human return fire was weakening. Unfortunately, the engagement window would be relatively short. It was one of the little quirks of space warfare. On the one hand, the fact that the humans needed to decelerate to approach the mass relay had allowed the turian fleet to overtake them, but it also meant that by now the turians had the higher speed and would actually move past the human ships before they could hope to decelerate. In that moment, they would have to destroy the humans to prevent them from entering the relay.
"Allow the fighters and frigates to move ahead and strike at enemy propulsion. By now they must have lost most of their point defense. Just cripple them. We'll finish them off later."
-o-o-o-
USM Osawa
Admiral van Buren watched as the turian formation began to split up. He had expected it to happen earlier, but the enemy was playing a rather cautious game. Not that it would make much a difference. He still had five destroyers with him -Themistocles had long since fallen behind, her propulsion gone- but of those only his flagship and USM Surcouf were still combat-capable, and even they were missing broadside guns and had lost most of their shields. The others were little more than wrecks, bleeding atmosphere from hull breaches and incapable of effective counter fire. If the enemy fighters closed now, they would be nearly unopposed as most ships had lost their point defense lasers. If the enemy pilots knew their business, they'd target his propulsion systems, leaving the destroyers helpless as the turian fleet closed.
"Admiral! The fighters!"
It took a moment for van Buren to realize, that captain Shen was not talking about the aliens. The remnants of Shanxi's fighter force, which had been holding position on the relay as the transports passed through, were now coming back on an intercept course with the approaching turians. The formation was ragged, probably due to a lack of central control, more than their earlier losses. Van Buren reached for his communications console to order them back, then stopped. The pilots knew what they were doing, knew the price they would pay for this attempt to buy his ships a few precious seconds. He would not dishonour that with futile orders.
-o-o-o-
The two formations swept toward each other, less than forty human fighters, a mix of Starfuries and F-302s against over a hundred turians, not counting the frigates. Closing speed was high, allowing little time for preparation or tactics. The turian fighters closed rapidly, firing as they came and concentrating the fire of three or four fighters on a single opponent. Behind them the frigates waited, decelerating to avoid being caught in the dogfight and unwilling to use their GARDIAN as long as their own pilots were in the line of fire.
The human pilots braked sharply, realizing the danger that awaited them if they passed through the enemy formation. In an instant, the turian fighters were upon them and all semblance of coordination was lost. the dogfight only lasted for few seconds, then the few remaining human fighters turned and fled, leaving behind more than half of their number as well more than a score destroyed turian fighters.
-o-o-o-
The destroyers had had a little respite because the turians had been force to cease fire to avoid hitting their own ships in the confusion of the dogfight, but now that was over and the range had decreased even further. As they approached the relay, USM Vian seemed to stagger, the next moment she broke in half, debris spilling out of both ends. The four remaining ships stuck to their course, their few remaining weapons still returning fire, now concentrating on the turian frigates, that were making a new attempt to approach. Ahead of them loomed the massive shape of the mass relay and admiral van Buren felt hope for the first time since the start of the battle. He had lost a third of his flotilla as well as nearly three-quarters of Shanxi's fighters, but at least he would be able to safe the rest.
In a hail of mass accelerator fire the destroyers closed on the relay, spreading out in line abreast to avoid collisions as they made the jump. Their shields were now gone and all had multiple hull breaches. The first destroyer was grabbed by the relay, then the second, the third...
USM Osawa, bringing up the rear linked to the signal of the relay. For a moment she seemed suspended in space as the relay prepared to hurl her over a hundred lightyears away toward Arcturus. At that same moment, both turian dreadnoughts fired from point-blank range and four massive projectiles slammed into her unshielded hull at relativistic speeds penetrating deep into her power-core. Even as the other destroyers vanished from local space, USM Osawa too vanished, in a massive explosion.
USM headquarters, Arcturus Station
Admiral Drescher listened silently to the report that Frank Haffner, her chief of staff, presented to her. Her face remained expressionless even as he read the casualty lists. The list was long, far too long, and most of it unnecessary.
"Thank you Frank. Please have medical staff stand by to deal with the wounded and make sure that the surviving destroyers have docks waiting for them. I want them repaired as quickly as possible. Send a copy to the operational analysis unit so they can study the alien tactics."
She looked up, her face still utterly blank.
"Make sure that I am left alone. Until tomorrow morning I don't want to be disturbed for anything, unless these turians actually move against Arcturus."
Shanxi, outer system
USM Dagger had followed the alien fleet as it traveled to Shanxi. Now she, and three other frigates, were the only human naval assets left in the system, hiding in orbits far away from the central planets and observed the progress of the battle. As per orders they had avoided the battle and reduced all active transmissions, they would stay silent and watch, waiting for the time that second fleet could slip its political leash and take the fight to the aliens. However, unbeknownst to them, they were not the only observers. The cloaked ship had followed the turian fleet into Shanxi. Now it was hiding in the outer reaches of the system. The crew had followed the battle with great interest, albeit some confusion.
"Why did the humans not send reinforcements?"
It was a question that bothered all of them.
"Perhaps, they wanted to test their warriors, by putting them deliberately at a disadvantage?" Someone suggested.
"No, that is not how they operate, besides the disparity was too large to be a useful test. Perhaps it is a trap."
"A trap?"
"If the humans want to inflict the maximum amount of casualties, they need the turians to land so that their fleet will have to stay and fight or abandon the ground force. Turians wouldn't land unless they had secured the system."
This was an interesting suggestion. Using an entire star system, including a garden world, as bait in a trap was the sort of ploy that they could appreciate.
"I any case, we shall endeavor to find out later. In the mean-time, it is time to move in. Once the turians are on the ground, we will only have a small window of opportunity. Besides, it will be interesting to observe the battle from nearby."
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A/N: Thanks to everyone for suggesting alternative uses of the ASAT missile.
Didd23: Yes, we never saw any fighters in Alien/Predator, but both the Starfury and the F-302 have a pragmatic, function-over-form look which fits pretty well with the Alien franchise. Besides, they are two of my favorite designs.
HaywireEagle: Oops! Thanks, I've corrected that.
PSG1JOHN: Nuclear warheads would be better and will probably be the next thing they try. Now they used the equivalent of Maverick or Harpoon missiles, but what they really need is something like an SRAM, or the old Genie missile. I left nukes out for now for several reasons: Humanity has been at peace for centuries. The only conflict they had was fighting xenomorphs and some low intensity conflict against corporate security and colonial uprisings. They never had to take on large warships, so they probably don't have large stockpiles of nukes, especially small ones that could be stolen and used for terrorist attacks. The second reason is that I don't want humanity to always have exactly the right tool for the occasion.
I considered mines, because the description of Aliens' Sulaco mentions them, but they don't really work well in open space (you'd need an awful lot of them and it would be tough to keep them in the right position), so I used the ASATs instead.
U.N.S: For the moment I think I'll stick with the Predators from the movies. The way I see the Predators, they don't have much of a military. They don't see other races as enemies that you fight, just prey that you hunt. So, individuals go out and have their little safaries. If they get killed, that just makes it more exciting. If the prey gets out of hand, a bunch of Predators get together and have a big hunt to fix the problem, like game wardens killing a man-eating tiger. Actual soldiers would be a small group that only gets called in if it's absolutely necessary. So for now the Predators from the movies will be the standard. In ME terms, I figure someone at least as a big and strong as a Batarian and as fast as a human. He wears armour as good as any ME heavy armour, with an infiltrator style cloak that can stay up forever. For weapons: edged weapons as good as the sword on a Cerberus phantom and a plasma cannon that hits as hard as a heavy shotgun, but can fire rapidly, is more accurate, and has very sophisticated targeting. Plenty tough, but he can be beaten. Of course their ships are even more nasty: direct energy weapons and complete stealth.