Mass Effect is the property of Bioware. 20th Century Fox owns the Alien/Predator franchise.
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HNV Force of Justice, Shanxi space
One moment, all was quiet. The next, alarms shrieked and general Oraka stormed onto the bridge of his flagship.
"Report!"
"Sir. Relay activating. Ships in transit."
"Recall the fighter patrol and alert the fleet. I want all ships ready to engage."
-o-o-o-
The mass relay glowed brightly, it's core spinning faster than the eye could follow. Then, with a single, blinding burst of light, fourteen ships appeared in local space.
"Sir, fourteen ships on sensors. Human design, cruiser sized."
"Only fourteen?"
"Yes sir."
General Oraka thought briefly. Fourteen cruisers could hurt him badly, but they would not be strong enough to defeat the turian fleet, even after the losses they had taken during their initial battle for the system. He still had three dreadnoughts, two undamaged and one partially functional, as well as seventeen cruisers. His main weakness lay in his frigates. The small ships had taken a bad beating during the initial battle. Normally a force this size would have at least twenty-five frigates to act as a screen. Instead, he had little more than half that number. The others had been either destroyed, send back home to make repairs, or had been dispatched to escort the cargo ships that were supplying the invasion force. However, the main purpose of frigates in a fleet engagement was to screen the larger ships from fighter attacks. A lack of frigates would be a major concern when attacking a hostile star system, where planets and space stations could put a significant fighter force in space. On defense it was less relevant, because the attacking fleet would only be able to deploy its organic fighter strength. So far, no human ship had been observed to carry fighters. Even if the humans launched fighters from facilities beyond the relay, those would be limited in their effectiveness because they would have to return through the relay to resupply. No, fourteen cruisers would not be enough to defeat him. Unfortunately, the humans had to know that too. And they wouldn't launch an attack like this unless they had good reason to believe it would be successful.
"We're missing something."
Captain Hastian, the ship's commanding officer, nodded. "I agree, general. They cannot hope to defeat us with this force."
"So, why send it at all? They are not stupid."
"Perhaps..."
"Yes captain?"
Hastian hesitated. "General, perhaps they have come to negotiate."
Oraka looked at him quizzically. "With fourteen cruisers?"
"Sir, they may feel the need to ensure the safety of their envoys."
It was not a pleasant thought. Whatever other species might think of them, the turian Hierarchy prided itself on its strict adherence to the law. They could be ruthless, yes, but to attack diplomats on a peace mission? That would never happen. Unfortunately, he could not really disagree. After recent events it was unlikely that the humans had a very favorable impression of the Hierarchy, or turians in general.
"Perhaps. If so, we can find out quickly enough. Open a channel. Meanwhile, leave four cruisers in orbit around the planet. Form up the rest of the fleet on the flagship."
-o-o-o-
USM Rozhestvensky
"Admiral Pressly, the enemy is hailing us."
Rear-admiral Pressly snorted contemptuously. As shown by the data that USM dagger had transmitted two weeks before, the turians had positioned their warships near the planet, rather than on top of the relay. A stroke of good fortune, as it allowed second fleet's carriers to enter the system unopposed. Now his fourteen destroyers, arrayed in two vertical columns of seven ships each, held position between the relay and the enemy. The first, most dangerous phase of the attack had already been completed, without firing a single shot.
"Let them."
"Sir?"
"I said: 'Let them'. The time for talking is past. Send a signal to admiral Drescher: 'Relay secure, enemy sighted, moving to attack.'"
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
"No response."
General Oraka sighed. "I supposed it was too much to hope for. But if they're not here to talk, and they cannot hope to defeat us, what are they doing?"
"Sir, relay activating. More ships arriving!"
"So, a staggered entrance. I wonder why. What is the count?"
There was a moment silence.
"Well?"
"General," the sensor tech seemed to have some trouble speaking. "Sir, arrival count is twenty-two ships, plus fighters. The computer estimates it as four dreadnoughts, eighteen frigates, and between one hundred and fifty and two hundred fighters."
That gave everyone pause. It was rare for a dreadnought to carry more than about twenty fighters. Either the human dreadnought design favored fighter complement over firepower, or, more likely, these fighters had been launched from facilities on the other side of the mass relay. Either way, this changed the situation completely. Whatever reason the humans might have had for this staggered entry onto the system, they now possessed the firepower to meet him on equal terms.
"Recall the remaining cruisers from planetary orbit. We're going to need them. Get me a closer look at the dreadnoughts."
It took only a moment to get a visual image.
"Curious."
It seemed the human love for all things box-shaped had not abandoned them when it came to dreadnought design. The ships were large, about a kilometer in length, and shaped like a flat box. On each side of the main hull, a second, smaller box had been attached. As with all human designs, no attempt had been made to create smooth lines.
"Are those engine pods?"
"It's possible, sir, but it seems unlikely. There are clearly identified propulsion units at the rear of the ship, and those two things at the side seem rather large for maneuvering thrusters. They're more likely to contain weapons. Perhaps launching bays for those missiles they're so fond off."
-o-o-o-
USM Ark Royal
"Status report!"
"All ships have successfully made transit, ma'am. Hostile force detected in expected location. Sending data requests... Now!"
There was a moment of silence.
"Commander Farnsworth aboard Dagger reporting, ma'am. We're receiving intelligence updates."
"Admiral, main enemy force is holding position. Remaining enemy ships are departing from planetary orbit.
Admiral Drescher nodded. "They're concentrating their forces. Very well. Back us away from the relay. Send half our frigate screen to reinforce admiral Pressly and have our fighters standing by. Then, send a message back through the relay. Transmit the latest intelligence updates and have the invasion force stand by to make transit on my signal."
"Yes, ma'am, communications standing by."
"Good. Send in the first strike."
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
"Enemy dreadnoughts are not advancing, general."
"I see." Oraka stared at the display. This was unexpected. There was absolutely no reason why the dreadnoughts would hang back, while the smaller ships engaged. Still, humans seemed to have their own way of doing things. In fact, during their initial battle for this system-
"Prepare for fighter attack!"
"Sir?"
"Do it!"
Even as he spoke, the human fighters suddenly detached themselves from the main body of the human fleet and accelerated forward.
"There! Remember when we first came here? Their fighters don't operate as part of the fleet. They're going to strike first to soften us up. Then the warships will move in. Spread our remaining frigates out over the front, but don't let them stray outside the GARDIAN envelope of our larger units. We've seen how that ends. They'll need all the support they can get."
Captain Hastian nodded. "I understand, sir. What about our fighters?"
"What about them?" Oraka laughed bitterly. "After our losses in the first battle, and without the fighters we stationed planet-side to support general Arterius, they'll be outnumbered more than three to one and we've already seen they have trouble dealing with the humans on equal terms. If we send them out, they'll be slaughtered. No, we have to let the frigates absorb the first blow. Then send in the fighters to pick off any isolated enemy they can find.
-o-o-o-
One hundred and eighty fighter craft, sixty F-302 strike fighters and one hundred and twenty SA-23 space superiority fighters, were racing ahead of the human fleet, converging on a point in space where they would encounter their targets. It was a sore point for the United Systems Navy that, in its entire existence, it had only once been unable to fight a battle the way they were supposed to fight it, and that battle had been a defeat. Before first contact they had simply had no enemy to give them a battle on such scale, and the initial skirmishes with the turians had been between a handful of isolated warships in empty systems. Unfortunately, when the turians invaded Shanxi, finally providing a real naval engagement, a lack of local resources had force admiral van Buren to improvise and prevented him from achieving the results that were expected for this kind of engagement. Or, at least, that was what the proponents of classic naval doctrine said. Others disagreed, arguing vehemently that the engagement proved that humanity's space naval warfare doctrine, ultimately a direct evolution of pre-space wet-navy experience, was inherently flawed and should have been abandoned long ago. Now, finally, it would be put to the test.
"Enemy formation change. Frigates positioned ahead of main force."
The pilots heard the message but continued on course. The turians' use of frigates as an advanced screen against fighter attack had been part of their briefing. It would be a nuisance, of course. No pilot worthy of the name would want to waste his ordnance on a mere frigate when there were larger targets around, but, on the other hand, simply ignoring the frigates was a suboptimal option as well as the small ships would exact a heavy toll on any fighter squadron that tried to bypass them. This had greatly reduced the effectiveness of Shanxi's fighter squadrons, which had been limited to engaging the turian frigates. Hopefully, this time things would be different
"Turnover point."
Normally the fighters would have cut their acceleration at this stage and engaged reverse thrust in order to match speed with the enemy formation, allowing for a zero-zero intercept. That would give them the best possible firing solution. This time, their approach vector had been calculated differently. The pilots cut their acceleration, allowing their fighters to coast on ballistic trajectories, and engaged their targeting sensors. At such a high approach speed they would have little time to lock onto a target and they needed every second.
Below each F-302 the on-board guidance systems of their missiles woke up, interfaced with the board computers, and started looking for targets.
-o-o-o-
Normally, a strike package of sixty F-302s would have carried a total of two-hundred-and-forty missiles in internal weapon bays. Instead, they carried only half that number, two missiles each, on hardpoints underneath the wings. It was an awkward arrangement, and would have prevented the fighters from entering an atmosphere until after the missiles had been launched. Under the circumstances that was largely irrelevant, and the smaller number of missiles was more than compensated by their longer effective range and their warheads.
"Targets acquired."
On board each F-302 the computer selected the targets that its missiles could reach and arranged them in order of the likelihood of a successful engagement. This list was then transmitted to the nearby fighters, which compared those lists to their own. Within seconds, each fighter was aware of the targets that each of the other fighters in its squadron could reach, and a new targeting solution, optimized for each fighter squadron was broadcast, prioritizing the most important targets while maintaining the highest possible to-hit chance. It was an old concept, dating back to atmospheric fighters of the twentieth century (1). It was not particularly popular with the pilots, who disliked anything that limited their ability to make independent decisions, but peacetime exercises had proven time and again that it would yield the best results when dealing with large-scale attacks.
"Entering engagement range."
One hundred and eighty pilots each flipped a switch and one hundred and eighty electronic warfare systems powered up. They had waited until the last moment, denying the turians the chance to get advance knowledge of the jamming routines that would be used on this strike.
"Launch! Launch! Launch!"
One hundred and twenty missile broke away from their fastenings, lit of their engines, and sped ahead of their launch aircraft. Behind them the fighters tightened their formations, blasting electronic noise on all frequencies as the pilots peered through their head-up displays, ready for the next phase of the engagement.
-o-o-o-
The turians had not been caught unprepared. All of them had seen the effect of massed human fighter strikes during the initial invasion and they had used the time since to prepare an effective response. Still, the situation was problematic. The human missiles relied purely on passive sensors to detect their targets, limiting the effectiveness of both electronic warfare systems and counter missile fire at the same time that those systems were being thrown back by the electronic noise emanating from the human fighters. Moreover, the attack pattern was different. During the first battle, the humans had volleyed their missiles at the frigate screen, while their fighters stayed out of the GARDIAN laser envelope. This time it was different. The fighters were still approaching at high velocity, clearly intent on penetrating the turian formation. That meant that soon the defenders would have to split their fire. Meanwhile, the missiles...
-o-o-o-
One-hundred-and-twenty missiles, spread over a wide front to reduce the effective firepower of the defenders, swept toward the turian formation. Each had been assigned a specific target in order to maximize their effectiveness. That assignment had been based on three parameters: Can I reach this target before the engine burns out, how many ships will be firing at me on the way in, and what is the value of the target? The first condition was clear. the second less so, as it depended on the effective range of the turian counter-missile defenses, which was only partially known. As for the third, Normally that would have been simply a matter of size. The bigger the target, the higher the priority. This time, priorities were different. Now each missile was locked on course, using an inertial navigation system to fly a specific course before on-board sensors would home in on the selected target.
One-hundred-and-three missiles left.
Defensive lasers lashed out, again and again, steadily reducing the number of missiles.
Eighty-eight missiles left.
Unlike their bigger brothers, the ASAT missiles, these missiles could not keep track of such matters while in flight. Instead, the targeting solution simply allowed for a certain amount of attrition by assigning twice as many missiles to each target as was thought to be required.
Sixty-three missiles left
The missiles reached the frigate screen. Second fleet's planners had tried to estimate the amount of firepower that would be needed to deal with the frigate-screen based on the reports from the first naval battle of Shanxi. Inherently, their plans were flawed, but they had been aware of that and erred on the side of caution. Now their calculations were put to the test. According to their estimates at least four missile hits would be needed to put a turian frigate out of action. By the time the missiles went into their terminal guidance phase, there were, on average, five left for each frigate.
The first missile hit its target, despite desperate last-minute laser fire from the defending gunners, and exploded in a blinding flash of nuclear fire, stripping the frigate of its kinetic barriers and blinding its sensors, leaving it helpless against the next missile. These missiles were old; their design dated back to the early days of the United Systems when a weak, scared government had been faced with the possibility of widespread revolt among the colonies, and sought to arm its military for a civil war that never became a reality. Since then they had been kept in storage, weapons without a target, considered by many to be something of a nuisance because of the risk that their warheads, relatively small but with a 10 kT yield, would fall into the wrong hands and be used by terrorists or guerrillas. In the aftermath of the battle for Shanxi, when it became clear that the navy's standard ship-attack missiles lacked the necessary range and firepower to deal efficiently with the alien warships they had been reactivated and mated with the F-302 fighters that, through a combination of hidebound tradition and fore-sight, had been equipped with the necessary hard-points and guidance systems to launch them, even though they had been designed and built decades after the missiles had been placed in reserve.
The effect was devastating. Turian plans had been based on the performance of the smaller, conventionally armed missiles they had previously encountered. Against those the overlapping fields of fire of the frigates should have been reasonably effective, especially after their defensive suites had been updated based on their observations of the missiles' performance envelope. While it was inevitable that some of the missiles would get through, their warheads were known to lack the firepower to destroy a warship, unless they hit in very large numbers. Not so for these warheads. While they lacked the massive destructive power of the ASAT warheads, they had the advantage of exploding directly against the target, rather than at a distance. If they had been spread evenly over their targets they would most likely have taken out the frigate screen completely. In practice that could not be achieved as the defensive fire had opened some gaps in the missile distribution.
Two frigates, each hit by at least seven missiles in rapid succession, disappeared in massive explosions as their eezo cores collapsed. Three others spun out of formation, propulsion units disabled or in some cases torn completely off, and two more staggered, bleeding air and debris as their hulls buckled under the impacts. Of the remaining seven, only one was completely undamaged.
The next moment the human fighters were upon them, sweeping through the frigate screen guns blazing, while turian defenders desperately tried to reset their blinded targeting systems. The high closing speeds meant that the engagement lasted only a few seconds, but in that instant the concentrated fire of a hundred-and-eighty fighters tore largely unopposed into the weakened shields and armor of the remaining frigates. By the time the fighters rushed past they had lost less than half a dozen of their number, but a third frigate had exploded and four more were effectively out of action. The rest were all damaged to a certain extent.
The fighters continued their dash, straight into the defensive laser fire of the cruisers and dreadnoughts. These did better, but they, too, had been affected by the unexpected nuclear explosions and needed time to recover. Turian fighters rushed forward in a valiant effort to stop the oncoming tide, but they were hopelessly outnumbered and the human pilots were, in any case, not interested in dogfighting. They swept around the turian fighters left and right, shooting at any target of opportunity that appeared in their gunsights.
It took only a few seconds before the fighters emerged on the other side of the turian fleet. This time they had taken significant losses. More than twenty fighters were gone completely and at least twice that number had taken damage to some extent. However, behind them the wreckage of at least thirty turian fighters, about two thirds of those that entered the engagement, was left spinning among the turians ships, many of which had lost sensors and laser clusters.
-o-o-o-
USM Ark Royal
"Strike complete."
Admiral Drescher studied the results. The losses matched the predictions, more or less. As to the results...
"We've cut their defensive screen in half, ma'am; and, unless they have some reserves stowed away, their fighters are pretty much gone."
The admiral stared at her display for a few more seconds, then she looked up.
"Good. It seems theory was right after all. Prepare to launch the second strike; and tell the invasion transports to get moving."
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
"General! They're making another transition."
Oraka stared at the haptic display in front of him and muttered a few very harsh curses. His ships were still trying to recover from the fighter strike. The last thing he needed was additional enemies. Besides, the tactical situation was strange enough already. the first human force was still between him and the relay, advancing slowly, but clearly in no hurry to make contact. the second group, including all four dreadnoughts had actually retreated from the relay, opening the distance, which made no sense at all. Even after the damage he had taken from the fighters the fourteen human warships of the first group had no hope of defeating him in a gun battle. They would absolutely need the support of those dreadnoughts, so why did the humans insist on keeping their forces separate?
"General, the new force is... is approximately twenty cruiser-sized ships. We've identified them as the same type that captain Livestian encountered during first contact. There are five larger warships, somewhere between a cruiser and a dreadnought, and a number of transports."
"Transports?"
"Yes, sir. They're large, but with low energy signatures. Definitely not warships."
"That's the planetary assault force. Has to be. Send a warning to general Arterius. He's about to have company."
Oraka kept studying his displays. The human actions started to make sense. They had send through their primary strike force first in order to draw his fleet away from the planet, but kept their landing force in reserve on the other side of the relay, ready to move, once they had established a presence in local space. Now they had made transit as well, which meant that the human commander was confident of a victory in space. He'd have to disabuse them of that notion.
"Take the fleet forward. We'll move through the first human force, take out as many as we can, then engage the dreadnoughts."
Captain Hastian hesitated. "General, what about this new force? If we move against the dreadnoughts, they'll be able to reach the planet unopposed."
"I know." Oraka nodded. "But we have no alternative. If we return to the planet we'll be trapped in the gravity well, while they can dance all around us. Think about it: they won't even have to attack us. We'll be cut off from any resupply, while they can get anything they want through the relay. No, we have to deal with their warships first. If we succeed in defeating them, any human attempt at landing on the planet will be doomed anyway. Order our transports away from the planet. I don't want them to get caught in orbit"
Shanxi space
Four formations of warships, three human and one turian, were now maneuvering around each other, following complicated flight paths. For the humans it was the largest space battle they had ever fought; for the turians the largest since the Krogan Rebellions, fifteen-hundred years earlier. For the galaxy at large, it would be the greatest battle since the Morning War. The largest human warships had ceased their retreat and were now holding position on the far side of the mass relay. The destroyers had done the same, but in a position between the mass relay and the advancing turian warships. Meanwhile, the third human formation was now accelerating away from the relay, setting a course that would allow them to match Shanxi's orbit. Take into account that both the relay and the planet themselves were moving in their orbits, and you ended up with a complicated set of maneuvers for everyone involved. The human carriers needed to stay outside the engagement range of the turians, but close enough to recover their fighters and coordinate the next strike. The destroyers needed to intercept the turians in such a way that they would be able to remain in action, rather than simply passing through the turian formation. The invasion force needed to reach the planet as quickly as possible, but in such a way that the troop transports and auxiliary carriers could enter orbit. Meanwhile, the turians needed to engage the human destroyers first in order to take them out of action, but without slowing down so they could move on and engage what they still believed to be humanity's primary gun platforms.
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
"Human ships are launching additional fighters!"
"What? How many."
"Sir, the estimate is least another hundred-and-fifty fighters."
For a moment Oraka's mind seemed simply frozen, incapable of accepting what he had heard. The fighters from the initial strike had curved away from his fleet, returning toward the mass relay. The damage they had inflicted had been painfull, but he had been able to console himself with the thought that they would need to retreat through the relay to resupply, effectively taking them out of the battle. Even if the dreadnoughts had not yet deployed their own fighters there was now way they could carry that many. How-
"Maximum acceleration!"
"Sir?"
"Maximum acceleration! Ignore their cruisers! Close with the larger ships."
"Yes, sir!" Turian discipline took over as orders went out among the fleet. Still, while turian discipline might be strict, it wasn't unthinking.
"General, if I may ask..."
"Those aren't dreadnoughts."
"Sir?"
"Look at them! Look at what they are doing, what they have been doing." General Oraka seemed to age years in the few moment that it took him to speak. "If they were dreadnoughts they would have closed on us by now. Instead they backed off. They aren't dreadnoughts at all. They're dedicated fighter platforms. Think about it! How many fighters can you pack inside a hull like that, if you don't need space for anything else? We have to close with them and engage, or they'll tear us apart with fighter strikes."
-o-o-o-
USM Tannhauser Gate
In the command center of his flagship, admiral Grissom studied the plot that showed the progress of his ships as Tannhauser Gate led eighteen other rapid deployment vessels in their high-speed dash for Shanxi. Behind them came the five auxiliary carriers and the transports that carried most of the marine landing force.
"We'll go with plan Beta."
"Sir?"
"The enemy have concentrated their forces. None of them can intercept us now."
"Yes sir. Relaying your orders now."
A moment later the nineteen RDVs increased their acceleration, changing their approach vector as they dashed ahead of the rest of the fleet. The default plan had called for the entire assault force to remain in one group, limiting their approach speed to that of the slowest ships, but with the enemy already moving away from the planet and no warships remaining in orbit there was no need to screen the transports. Instead, the RDVs would race ahead, allowing them to deploy their assault shuttles as early as possible, then continue with their secondary mission to stop any attempt by the turian warships to return to the planet and interfere with the landing operation.
-o-o-o-
As the ships raced onward, and the approaching planet grew larger and larger on the view screens, massive hatches opened on each side and crane arms slid outward, each holding a shuttle suspended next to the hull of the ship. The RDVs swept into orbit on a carefully calculated trajectory. This was the most dangerous part of the operation, something that no human pilot could have accomplished, and maneuvering thrusters fired as computers made last-minute course corrections to lock each ship in the correct trajectory while they used the local gravity field to slow them down as they curved around the planet. Then, still purely under computer control, magnetic clamps detached and from each vessel six shuttles, a mixed group of Viking troop transports and Super-Cheyenne assault-dropships sped away, braking sharply to match the planetary rotation as they plummeted toward the surface of Shanxi. Meanwhile, the warships raced onward, breaking away from the planet and turning toward the turian fleet.
-o-o-o-
HNV Force of Justice
General Oraka swore under his breath as a wave of dropships streamed toward Shanxi. The humans had tricked him. No, that's not correct. I've deceived myself. I was so sure that those large warships were dreadnoughts. That's why I recalled back the cruisers and left the planet wide open. That had been a crucial mistake. Unwilling to face the onslaught of four dreadnoughts without his full strength, he had ordered the remaining ships to withdraw from orbit and rendez-vous with the main body of the fleet, fully expecting the humans to engage him before they made their move toward the planet.
Instead, the humans had split their forces. The initial wave, joined by about half of the frigates was keeping station relative to his own fleet, exchanging long range fire while their electronic warfare systems were probing his sensors and communication network. The larger vessels had taken up a position on the other side of the relay, screened by the remaining frigates. They didn't need to go anywhere near his forces. Their main offensive weapons, their fighters, could reach the turian fleet anywhere in the system. He, on the other hand, had no way to strike back. His few remaining fighters would be slaughtered before they could get anywhere near the human warships. He would have to advance with his own ships and that would mean fighting his way past the smaller human warships, all the while absorbing strike after strike from their fighters.
Meanwhile, the planet was wide open and the third wave of human warships was taking full advantage of that fact. The smaller ships had dropped their assault force and were now slowly approaching the turian fleet, threatening his flank. According to captain Livestian's original report, these ships were not particularly powerful in ship-to-ship combat; understandable, as it now seemed that they had been designed for planetary assault. Still, there were a lot of them and he'd have to engage them with secondary weapons, or turn his ships around, which in turn would leave them vulnerable to the human cruisers.
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(1) Authentic. It is available on the MiG 31 foxhound. A flight of 8 interceptors can use a real-time data link to determine automatically which plane fires at what target.
Time to go medieval on the turians. And I just reached 100,000 words, so cause for celebration.
For the appearance of the human carriers I'm thinking of the X304 class from Stargate SG1. I suppose battlestar galactica could work too, but I don't like the massive gun batteries. These are really supposed to be purely fighter platforms.
Obviously the landing is based on the Klendathu drop from Starship troopers (the movie) I loved the imagery of that scene. However, rather than having the ships just kind-of hang in orbit, I decided on the high-speed approach that Robert Heinlein actually describes in his book.