September 9, 2089
Samar and her Lightning-class partner Cyclone made their way through the small white dwarf system, scouting it in advance of their convoy. Their sensors could easily detect the dozens of small asteroid mining bases littered throughout the system. As the light of the entire system hit them, an object of much greater interest could be detected.
"It's a batarian destroyer, sir. They've almost certainly spotted us as well." the sensors officer said to Tim.
Tim grimaced. "We're too far in to the system to be able to run now."
Lisa shrugged in reply. "We can probably take him anyway."
"I have to concur with your XO, Colonel Li. We've got the firepower for it." the Lightning's CO, Major Iwasaki Hina, spoke through the video com connection between the two ships.
The batarian destroyer had noticed the human ships, and was already burning towards them. Batarian destroyers operated under the same doctrine that the destroyers in the rest of civilized space used: meaning that it was designed to specialize in hunting down frigates and other little ships just like the Samar and the Lightning. It would have a generous point defense array and a hefty complement of anti-missiles. It would be damnably fast, too. It was designed to smack down any wayward frigate's torpedo run, and then ride them down and finish them off. Guided munitions wouldn't cut the mustard for this target.
Tim's grimace grew in size. Then he sighed. "Well, if we've got to do it, let's do it right. Get into formation. We're herding cats."
Major Iwasaki smiled slightly, before nodding to one of her officers, who cut the connection.
The pair of interceptors moved laterally to increase the distance between themselves some more, eventually maneuvering to a point where their lines of fire would be perpendicular to each other. The batarian captain was wise to their tricks, and maneuvered to face the pair and keep his rear protected. The pair of human ships opened up on the destroyer.
Both interceptors had opened up with their spinal mounts, but the Lightning class's far superior armament was made apparent as Cyclone opened up with her secondary batteries. Cyclone looked almost like a twentieth century "gun fighter" jet scaled up, with its primary cannon embedded in its "nose", and its secondary batteries being located further from the center. Her three secondary cannons were embedded in the hull in a circle around the spinal mount. They lacked the barrel-length of the spinal mount, but were much more traversable, able to make significant adjustments to their firing trajectory without having to move the whole ship. The reduced barrel length meant that they couldn't get a heavy round up to the same muzzle velocity as the spinal mount, which would have severely limited their range. Because of this, it fired a much smaller round, which enabled it to fire at roughly the same muzzle velocity (and thus the same range) as the spinal mount.
It compensated for the reduced projectile mass by firing at an automatic rate. The batarian destroyer was able to see a demonstration of this as the Cyclone unleashed its deluge of kinetic firepower upon it.
At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the human barrage. The rounds came, and the destroyer moved to dodge. However, it quickly became clear that there was more to the human fire when the batarian captain discovered that there was no location he could safely dodge to. Rather than focus all of their fire in one place, the shots were instead carefully calculated, with each ship coordinating as they followed a complex plan that had been ruthlessly drilled into their crew in the Space Force Academy.
Every spinal mount shot and burst of secondary cannon fire was carefully timed and aimed in a highly choreographed dance that was explicitly designed to entrap the enemy in a no-win situation. The only way out was through a hail of bullets, so the only thing a smart captain could do was try to find the smallest hail they could. The batarian captain did exactly that, making a dash through a section of the deluge that held only secondary cannon rounds. Little did he know, this had been anticipated. As the destroyer weathered the barrage of secondary cannon fire and came out the other end of it, it was struck by a spinal mount round that had been fired in anticipation of it taking that trajectory. Only then did the reality of what he was up against truly strike the batarian captain.
This wasn't merely a clever trick or hastily constructed maneuver. This was the product of an entire doctrine. Everything, from the targeting software, to the ship designs, to the officer and crew training, had been planned with tactics like these in mind. To an officer from a Council (or in his case, Council-adjacent) military, it was baffling. To commit so many resources to an effort to coordinate combat on such a needlessly granular level was not the sort of thing officers in civilized space were taught to do. Of course, trying to detect, anticipate, and influence enemy dodges in your firing pattern was standard practice, but to commit to it at such a level would ultimately seem like a waste of effort for a Council officer.
The human tactics came less from a place of ingenuity and more from an economic reality: the Space Force didn't have that many ships. For the council races, a single ship was an expendable asset, a small part of a much larger hull. A hundred ships was a good-sized extended patrol fleet or a small sub-unit of a larger formation. For the Space Force, a single ship was a precious resource, a hundred ships was a major strategic formation. The leadership of the Space Force was still struggling to wrap its head around the sheer scale of wars like the Rachni Wars or the Krogan Rebellions, where even minor battles could still have hundreds of ships participating, and where major battles had gargantuan swarms of ships, tens of thousands strong.
The semi-affectionate nickname for this carefully coordinated firing and maneuvering at the Space Force Academy was "herding cats". The accuracy of the name was even more present in a live-fire situation than in the countless simulations at the academy. Because, much like cats, enemy ships had no interest whatsoever in cooperating with your plans for them.
The batarian captain proved this as he did something that startled his enemies: he started herding right back.
While his ship was not in any way optimized for the tactic, the destroyer still made a good show of it. He angled his spinal mount and fired, seemingly at nothing. Then, his destroyer charged forward, sending a low broadside at the Cyclone with his turrets. The Cyclone was forced to dodge up, more and more...sending it right into the path of the oncoming spinal mount rounds. Were he using a ship properly designed for it, the captain's ploy might have ensnared the Cyclone completely. However, the turret guns lacked the muzzle velocity to properly set up the trap, and Cyclone was able to maneuver its way through the trap.
Which is why it was fortunate for the captain that he hadn't planned to hit the Cyclone in the first place. The batarian destroyer burned hard, coming around in a wide turn towards the Samar. The human ship designs might have been completely unfamiliar to the captain, but he had eyes. The Samar had far fewer guns than the Cyclone.
The batarian destroyer came at the Samar in a headlong charge. If it could get in close, her turrets would rip the Samar to pieces. Which was why it came as a surprise when the Samar counter-charged directly at her assailant. The batarian captain had little time to react, and it was a testament to his skill when he gave his next order:
"Full reverse!"
It was too late. Samar unleashed her payload. A swarm of simple, scrawny rockets were ejected out from her bomb bay, her generous velocity added to their own. At once, the swarm of rockets activated their cheap chemical thrusters and maneuvered to envelop the destroyer in a hail of k-bombs.
Once again, the batarian captain's skill shined through, and he made the best move someone in his position could. Instead of panicking and frantically maneuvering to dodge, and thus making his ship a larger target, he ordered his ship to barrel straight through the swarm, burning the reverse engines at full emergency power to bleed his velocity as much as possible
His cool-headed behavior saved his life and the lives of his crew. It did not, however, save his chances of winning the battle. The k-bombs evaporated the destroyer's shields, and battered its hull beneath it. With his shields buckled, most of his weapons disabled, and the Samar hot on his heels, the captain made the only sensible choice.
"Colonel, enemy broadcasting on an open channel!" the comms officer called out.
Tim quirked an eyebrow. "By all means, Lieutenant, put it through."
The translated voice of what was presumably the batarian captain came through Tim's earpiece.
"Attention unknown vessels, I surrender my ship, please hold your fire. I say again, I surrender my ship, plea-"
"Hail them." Tim ordered.
The comms officer complied, and after a brief moment a video call came through on Tim's display.
Tim was no expert at reading batarian expressions, but it didn't take a xenobiologist to tell that the batarian captain was genuinely astonished to see him.
"What...what are you?" he said.
Tim blinked. "I am Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Li of the United Nations Rangers, commanding officer of the Samar, the ship you see before you."
The batarian shook his head. "No, I mean, what species are you?"
Tim blinked even more. "I am a human."
The batarian looked genuinely puzzled. "You're no pirate, you're a military officer. Translator can't make heads or tails of your titles, but that much is clear. Why are you attacking a mining outpost in the middle of no where?"
This time Tim's eyebrows raised. "My government ordered me to. Because we are at war. Are you...not aware?"
The batarian's face took on a stony expression. "Excuse me, I must have a conversation with my intelligence officer."
He turned around, heading towards another batarian who stood in the background. The batarian gave the captain a questioning look. The batarian captain snatched a pistol from the holster of a nearby guard and gunned the other batarian down. His entire bridge crew looked at him in astonishment.
The batarian captain walked back over to his terminal and spoke.
"I would like to announce my intention to defect."
Tim still couldn't believe the video conversation he was taking part in.
"So...you were a prisoner?" Hina asked the batarian.
"In a manner of speaking. The ship was mine to command, and I operated in the Hegemony Starfleet as a conventional officer. It's a convenient way to get rid of someone without drawing the ire of their clan. Purging me and my family would have been taken as an insult by my clan. Giving me a command avoids that insult. Even if the "command" is an elderly destroyer in the ass-end of the Hegemony." the captain, who had identified himself as Onatheer, said.
"Why did they put you here?" Lisa said.
"Got caught with forbidden literature. A common man would've just been shot. Someone from a privileged position like myself just gets tucked away somewhere I won't cause any trouble." Onatheer said.
"Forbidden literature?" Tim said.
"Historical texts. The kind that have actual history in them, which are of course the worst kind in the Hegemony's view." Onatheer said.
"So, what? You're telling us you're some kind of batarian radical?" Hina asked.
The batarian grinned. "Something like that."
The grin faded. "From what you've told me, you're a raiding party of sorts, right?"
"Something like that." Tim said with a half smile.
"Then you won't mind if I suggest your next target, will you?" Onatheer asked.
Tim raised an eyebrow. "Go on."
"There's a political prison in this region. 'Ginfelthir'. Its our name for the underworld. They call the prison that because no one ever leaves alive." Onatheer said.
The batarian's expression hardened. "I have a vested interest in altering that reputation."
Tim smiled and leaned back in his chair.
"What do you have in mind?"
Hey all! Sorry for the wait, been busy and tired lately, but I've had this chapter bouncing around in my head for a long time now. I'm happy to have it written out now.
In the next chapter: Prison Break!
