Chapter 13
=location: Amare system, December 15, 2179=
If someone had told a historian at this point that the Battle of Amare was the biggest space battle in the history of the galaxy, they would have been immediately mocked and would have been pointed to several battles in the Rachnii Wars. But no one could deny that it was the biggest battle in the last thousand years.
The first few days were clashes on the outer part of the system between single fleets, eventually turning into a full-fledged engagement with both sides throwing everything they had into the fight. The initial kinetic and rocket barrages quickly obliterated a large number of Great Urup Interstellar Alliance (GUIA) ships, along with Amare defense stations. Furide's heavy missiles quickly shifted their targets to any battleships and cruisers in the area, while Beldel fighters in their untold thousands rushed to the attack with thousands more SUS and Boral bombers.
The defending Allies began a slow retreat closer to the next line of defense in Sector E15, leaving the entire sector between them and the advancing GUIA ships while sending large numbers of jamming waves behind them to eliminate the FTL jump capability of the GUIA forces in the area. The first defensive formations were mainly a few formations of Geth frigates and a large number of corvettes and fighters led by a small group of cruisers and a few battleships. When the fight began, Beldel showed why they had the best starfighters in this part of the galaxy, quickly gaining an advantage in speed and maneuverability despite their lack of MassEffect.
Although Geth starfighters tried to intercept Beldel starfighters many times, the sheer number of jamming made coordination and communication difficult, so they had to operate in small groups of 4-5 instead of coordinating all the fighters at once. Fighters of other races were outclassed even more and soon holes began to appear in the skirmish line, causing bombers to start attacking light ships that were in the first line of defense, destroying many of them despite their powerful point defense systems.
In the E15 sector, many defensive platforms and another group of ships watched the fight and sent their fighters to support the retreat of the first line of defense. This group of fighters quickly hit the bombers that were attacking ships, eliminating the pilots who had Target Fixation on the front-line ships and only saw the approaching Allies fighters when it was too late. The remaining GUIA fighters withdrew to their mother ships, which moved to attack the second line of defense.
Massive rocket and kinetic shell fire began again, destroying many more ships as the SUS strike groups approached the main line. This attack was aimed at groups of Mazan ships that were technologically the worst. But seeing this attack, the Mazanu fleet quickly reformed and started firing their kinetic batteries first, while the Galman fleet moved to support them.
The initial kinetic impacts did great damage to the SUS ships. However, this barely slowed them down, and as soon as they got within range of their main guns, they began firing all their guns, quickly destroying many frigates and cruisers. The fleet command ship Mazan, one of the new Battleships, began to take damage quickly.
But the Galman fleet arrived and supported Mazan before they could collapse. Their ships began with a torpedo salvo on the SUS midships, then launched the main attack on their vanguard, eliminating many ships.
The SUS strike group commander decided to withdraw to reduce losses. The rearguard began firing at the chasing ships of the broken fleet, then began to retreat. But fortunately for the defenders, a group of cruisers from the Geth fleet were in this line and began to fire hard at the SUS ships, eliminating them almost completely.
Elsewhere on the front, a group of Bolar ships tried to attack the Ethos fleet, which was relatively lightly defended by only 2 dozen corvettes. For this reason, one of the 2 Bolar fleets that attacked was mostly made up of guided missile destroyers. However, this Ethos fleet was a newer version with 60 frigates to defend larger ships from just such attacks. Therefore, when the attack began, the Bolar ships began to lose very quickly, despite having numerical superiority.
Rockets and torpedoes that flew toward Ethos were quickly eliminated, although a few got through and managed to destroy 5 frigates. Although both sides initially planned to use their primary long-range energy weapons, due to the energy consumption it required and the continuity of the battle, both commanders decided to save energy for later clashes. But this turned out to be a mistake for the Bolars, as the much better quality Ethos ships began bombarding the Bolar ships with devastating volleys from their pulse energy cannons, destroying 3 ships for every one lost.
As the Bolars began another retreat, only then did Ethos decide to use his long-range energy cannons to finish off the fleeing Bolars, which nearly annihilated the rest of the strike force.
Elsewhere on the front, the Furide fleet was shelling the defense stations and the nearby Amare fleet with their missiles. Although the numerous corvettes protected these ships from missile damage, there was always somewhere a missile that came through and caused damage. This tactic was costly on resources but slowly paid off with many corvettes and cruisers destroyed and the defense station damaged. Although more corvettes have arrived from the reserves, continuing in this way will only lead to more ships being destroyed.
Therefore, as soon as the supply ships joined the front lines to supply Furide with another round of missiles, the Piresjian fleet attacked, destroying several ships in the initial salvo. But nearby Beldel fighter patrols quickly spotted this fleet and attacked. The cloaking devices were a visible weakness that quickly became a target, and the deficiencies in the AA systems quickly became apparent with every ship in the fleet losing cloaking capabilities.
At this point, the part of Furide's fleet that had not rearmed opened fire with all its guns, massacring the lightly armored ships of Piresia. The entire Piresia Technocracy fleet was wiped out in minutes, while Furide's losses were a few supply ships and a dozen cruisers.
Then the two armadas regrouped, resupplied, and watched every move of the enemy. Heavy losses on both sides began to force the commanders to be more and more careful in the next move. The only thing that hasn't changed is the constant artillery fire of Geth's ships. Normally ineffective at such great distances, the sheer number of ships made them almost always hit something.
However, the GUIA forces also noticed this and decided to break through this line of defense as soon as possible. For this reason, they put their Space Fortress to the front and rushed forward with the entire fleet. Dozens of ship types numbering in the thousands resumed combat. In the midst of it all, the GUIA mega-fortress began a slow advance through the center of the Allied defense lines.
And then the Allies began their retreat to sector C8, the last line of defense. In this sector was also the moon Amare and after it only sector B4 and ends with sector A0 - Amare itself. Occupying sector C15 alone would allow GUIA to strike directly at shipyards and other production and logistics facilities.
Add to this that many ships were already damaged and had been fighting for the last 6 hours. Although most of the soldiers were already tired, the general feeling was better on the Allied side. Although they started with fewer ships, in many previous clashes they inflicted more losses on the GUIA. Not only that, the Geth didn't need to rest, and the constant shifting of ships in the front line led to less fatigue.
However, despite fatigue, the GUIA fleet still had high morale. They have just destroyed the second line of defense and there is only one left on the way to Amare and final victory. Not only that, the Allies withdrew as soon as the Space Fortress appeared on the front, so as long as it existed ahead they had every hope of victory.
Space Fortress began to slowly approach the last line of defense with a whole armada of GUIAs covering all weak points. As soon as they were in a battle position, the ships formed battle lines. The SUS fleet was in the center, protecting the fortresses, and the Beldel and Furide fleets positioned themselves mixing between the center and the flanks formed by the Bolar fleets.
The plan was simple. Break through the center with the great firepower of the Space Fortress and the SUS fleet, while the Beldel and Furide fleets bombard the lanes with missiles so that the center does not receive reinforcements without major losses and give fighter support, while the Bolar fleets are to hold the flanks against potential attacks and bind the forces there for long distances.
According to their plan, the Allied forces positioned themselves to weaken the center while strengthening the flanks to catch the GUIA fleets in the crossfire. According to the vision of the GUIA fleet commanders, Ethos held the left flank while the Galmans held the right flank and Amare held the center. Geth ships held back as a reserve, although the scans showed around 200, and Mazanu ships were scattered throughout the battle line to make the most of their amazing point-defense abilities. The Piresia fleet was absent, either cloaked or already completely destroyed.
The first volleys began as before, though
the Geth stopped firing. Whether it's from lack of ammunition, energy or overheating is unknown. But this time, mazanu's highly dispersed point defense capabilities made Furide's missile damage concentrated on elements between Amare and the neighboring Galman and Ethos fleets intimidating, and commanders quickly pulled units from there to limit casualties.
Unfortunately, this also meant that the previously unified front line began to split into three separate battlefields: Amare - Alpha, Ethos - Echo, and Galman - Golf. To keep it that way, large numbers of fighters and bombers were sent into these gaps to attack the flanks. The Allies fleets countered this by sending large numbers of their own fighters into the area, along with a combined offensive at Echo and Golf Fields.
On the Echo Field, the Ethos fleets began to close at maximum combat speed to the Bolar fleet, planning to take advantage of the numerical advantage in this field along with better quality ships, while negating the advantage of Furide's fighters and missile weapons due to the risk of friendly fire. The fast-approaching fleets of Ethos placed their heavier cruisers ahead to take the initial fire, while the lighter and faster ships prepared to penetrate the enemy battle lines.
The cruiser began to take the first hits, sooting back with everything they had. The combat quickly destroyed many ships, but the close-in objective actually led to Furide holding fire while reducing the effectiveness of enemy starfighters who had to break through the point defenses of Ethos and present Mazan's ships, and risk being hit by or hit their own ships.
Ethos forces quickly began to force their way deep into the Bolar formation, destroying many ships and causing them to panic and retreat to the flanks, leaving a hole through which they could break. But the experienced Ethos commanders spotted the trap and ordered a pursuit of the Bolar troops and a quick strike against their splitting groups. They will not be exposed to the fire of the Furide fleet.
The fighting within knife range was extremely brutal. The Ethos corvette squadrons, which were supposed to act more as U-shaped heavy strike ships, began to eliminate single enemy ships.
At one point, the Bolar Battleship A-Type began firing straight at the Ethos frigate, which barely managed to survive the initial salvo. As the Bolar ship prepared to finish them off, 2 other frigates from the same squadron fired their long-range energy cannons, hitting and destroying the Battleship.
Elsewhere, an Ethos cruiser fired at every nearby Bolar ship, oblivious to the missile destroyer that fired a massive volley of missiles, destroying the bridge and most of the vital systems, leaving nothing but wreckage.
Next, the Mazan frigate engaged the Bolar missile destroyer. Its point defense allowed him to destroy rocket volleys after firing his single Railgun. But the Bolar ship maneuvered to expose its energy cannons at the frigate, which could destroy the ship with a single hit. Fortunately for the frigate, a nearby squadron of 3 Ethos corvettes noticed this and quickly raided the destroyer. During the attack, they managed to hit the depot with missiles, which led to an internal explosion that tore the ship into hundreds of smaller pieces that slightly damaged nearby ships.
Overall, the battle on Echo Field turned into one big mess with control of more than a squadron of several ships becoming effectively impossible. Here, better training and the quality of Ethos crew and ships began to annihilate the Bolars.
On the Golf course, the Galman fleet fared less well, although it still had the upper hand. Fighting with long-range energy cannons and missile weapons turned into a real art of destruction.
One of the Galman fleets attempted an attack from above. Heavy fire from Furide forces them to retreat.
Bolarz sends a large battle group for a frontal strike. They quickly begin to retreat after getting artillery strikes from above, coupled with attacks from fighters and bombers from below, and shells from defense stations and Galman ships.
Galman fighters are trying to finish off the rest of the strike group. They are quickly forced to retreat by numerous Beldel fighters.
Furide missile attacks toward defense stations. They are quickly blocked by Mazan's grapeshot and the point defense of the entire fleet.
The Galman Fleet, without such experienced officers as Ethos and due to the distance, bringing fewer ships than Ethos to battle, was never able to go on a direct offensive. At the same time, the defensive stations provided sufficient fire support to stop the GUIA attacks.
This battlefield has effectively turned into a static front. Neither side could move or they would be countered by the other, effectively forcing them to wait for the outcome of the fight from the other battlefields.
The last field Alpha was going almost perfectly for GUIA. Amare's fleet was much smaller than SUS's. In addition, the fighters managed to break through and destroy some of the Amare ships, resulting in a tighter formation and exposure to the GUIA Space Fortress. The first strike, however, was without much success, thanks to the grouping of 50 Amare battleships and their shields. The SUS fleet, however, quickly took advantage of this opportunity and began to approach the Amare fleet from 4 directions, up, down, left and right. The Amare Fleet is stuck in this formation taking more hits from the GUIA Super Fortress.
Amare's Commander decided to risk everything and ordered a downward flight to prevent the SUS fleet from fully enveloping his ships. However, the SUS fleet pursued him and began to get closer. The potential massacre of Amare's forces was evident.
But then all of the Geth ships made an FTL jump almost right into the GUIA Super Fortress, with some ships crushing the SUS ships that were escorting Super Fortress. The GUIA command knew of the jamming FTL sent by the Allied forces to force the final battle, which led them to believe that such a lightning attack directly on their command base was impossible. Unfortunately, the Geth used a different form of FTL, which allowed them to do this.
Another important thing was that Geth didn't have the same self-preservation instincts as normal organic beings. Not only that, but by placing their own servers on the moon of Amare, and even the queen lending her personal servers, the losses of the Geth would be minimal.
These effects meant that when the Geth began attacking, the SUS fleet was taken completely by surprise and was quickly overrun by Geth ships. The torpedo disruptor, kinetic and plasma projectiles began to destroy the few remaining defenses. Their main guns and relatively higher position allowed them to fire directly at reserve forces, support ships, and the fortress itself. The SUS ships were recalled from the attack on Amare's ships, but many were already engaged in combat. Moreover, the shield began to fall.
For this reason, the commander of the GUIA Space Fortress ordered all cannons to be used to destroy the Geth fleet, which he succeeded in doing. Once a serious threat, it has been reduced to scrap metal with only a few survivors still fighting. Unfortunately, many SUS ships were also destroyed in this attack.
But this allowed for one final attack by the Piresian fleets, which took advantage of the temporary lack of escort and shelled the GUIA Space Fortress with everything they had. Fusion torpedoes and various plasma weapons quickly penetrated the weakened shield and the armor of the fortress just as quickly collapsed under the combined fire of over 200 ships.
Seconds later, the Super Fortress was completely destroyed and the entire GUIA armada just after it. The Super Fortress housed the overall command of the entire armada, as well as most of the top military minds of the GUIA. In the fortress itself, there was also a SUS admiral commanding the entire SUS fleet. At the same time, they lost the fire advantage it provided over the Amare fleet, which launched an immediate counter-attack, planning to make the most of the shock the loss of the GUIA Super Fortress had on their fleet.
At Echo and Golf Field, the GUIA's fighting spirit collapsed and all ships began a quick escape with the Allied fleets in pursuit. The remaining SUS forces on Field Alpha quickly realized the situation and started retreating before the Ethos and Galman fleets could cut them off.
However, the Allies knew that a cornered animal was still dangerous, so they decided to leave them one escape route, where the GUIA fleets retreated, constantly receiving crossfire damage.
In terms of GUIA casualties, the SUS Empire fleet took the most damage, with the Bolar Federation fleet in second place, followed by the Beldel Hierarchy and Furide United Planets fleets roughly in line with the least damage.
The Allies, on the other hand, suffered smaller, but also heavy losses. Almost all Geth ships first, then a large part of the Ethos forces, Amare 3rd by loss, Galman at 4th, Mazan at 5th, and Piresia at a distant 6th. Although this is shown as %, not numerically.
All in all, the siege of Amare was a major, but costly, victory for the Allies, who used the moment to launch several smaller offensives across multiple planets. At the same time, the Rebels significantly increased their activity as GUIA patrols dropped to an unprecedentedly low level. Which way the rest of the war would go was pretty obvious, the only question left was how long it would take.