Horse and Sun, Dragon Falls 02
Near orbit around Galtor III
Two hours later
General Ukita Syovo Yoriyoshi sat inside his BattleMech, a custom Dragon, ensconced within the Overlord DropShip "DCS PRIDE OF BENJAMIN". Unlike Margrave Douglass, who had a full tactical map being projected into his HUD, Yoriyoshi could only count on the radio channels from the bridge to relieve the feeling of helplessness in a flying coffin.
"Davion Assault DropShips coming in, diamond formation, flanked by two squadrons. Our own Assault Dropships moving in to focus fire on the leftmost Davion craft. Fightcraft entering contact… LRM range. LRM fire exchanging."
"This is DCS KANABO to battlegroup, we are moving ahead."
The four Avenger-class DropShips were only 1400 tons, but had the firepower surpassing a Union, the armor of an Overlord, and performance above even heavy AeroSpace Fighters, able to punch 5.5 gees at need with 160 tons of fuel allowing superior battlefield endurance compared to any fighter with meager six tons to maneuver with.
Although attrition rates were quite high for Avengers as they were expected to be the tip of the spear, glory was high and they were atrociously dangerous craft.
Impressively armed with
2x PPC
1x AC/20
6x AC/5
1x AC/2 (facing aft)
4x LRM-20 (1 aft)
2x large laser
8x medium laser (2 aft)
- the four assault craft traded LRM fire with the incoming screen of ELH fighters, while waiting for PPC range to bring their AC/5 and PPCs to bear. The disc-shaped dropship's forward arc weight of fire could strip the armor of a Union's side in four passes, and with all four of them they could punch through even an Overlord at its thickest nose armor in one volley.
Their escorting heavy fighters could only push 4 gees for a comparatively shorter time without cutting into the fuel reserves they needed to fight with, and the Avengers trusted in their thick armor to make a combat pass, turn about, and lead the enemy fighters into the rest of the inbound Kurita fighter mass.
In the scopes they were a tidal wave - a divine wind - of approximately 70 fighters coming in three groups.
The two Vengeance-class Carriers carried 6 squadrons each, but every Overlord also carried its own integral squadron of 6 fighters per ship. In practice, instead of 2:1 they could easily have swamped the defenders with 3:1 if they dared to peel away the dropships' fighter screen.
But throwing all your forces at the enemy leaving no reserve was some amateur's tactical panic. Two vs one was fine.
One of the Avengers suddenly popped like a bag of popcorn left far too long in the microwave.
"What? Kono-"
Another Avenger, the DCS TANTO, spontaneously exploded for no readily discernible reason.
The two remaining Avengers accelerated to their maximum and weaved around randomly in evasive maneuvers as they still tried to drive their teeth at the enemy. PPC range was mere seconds away.
One of the two remaining Avengers felt the rain of LRM-20s peppering its armored surface as little more than a harmless sunny day drizzle… then its nose armor peeled back over a few seconds, and then suddenly the Assault DropShip burst into flame and debris as it was cored straight through. Beams cut into the engines and out the other side and its fuel tanks ignited.
"BANZAI! KURITA BANZAAA-~!" the crew of the last remaining Avenger DropShip screamed as they fired their weapons heedless of being able to hit anything.
And then they exploded.
The four DroST IIE DropShips of the Eridani Light Horse and their attendant fightercraft continued their approach through the black at a leisurely 2 gees.
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Each DroST IIE massed 5, 300 tons. In a 4 vs 4 they outmassed the enemy more than twice over. What they lack in speed, they made up for in their monofocus on anti-ship operatons.
Now it was these Pocket WarShip's turn to bare their guns in anger against fightercraft. They each had four fighters that stubbornly remained around their parent craft to defend them from fighter assault.
In practice, this meant that of the ten squadrons that the ELH could bring to bear, only eight squadrons dared to dive deep into the enemy formation ahead of the DroSTs. The fightercraft surrounded the four DroSTs in a reverse flying V formation.
The DCA escort craft of the sunk Avengers accelerated to meet them instead of slowing down to rejoin the greater Kuritan mass. Their aim was to spend their lives scattering and disrupting the defending forces before the main force.
They were all still in front of the four DroST PWS.
While Kurita commanders had a decent view of the ongoing battle inside the command centers of their DropShips, BROTHER EYE displayed the tactical map to the HUD of all commanders down to the squadron level with a dish-plate style graph of the effective combat range bands.
The DroSTs continually released volleys of LRM-20s - understandable, as DropShips could have a deeper reserve of shots than the limited capacities of fightercraft. With six Extended LRM-20s able to fire on a forward arc, that meant the launchers became a firehose coming out of the PWS on the tacmap. One might even call it a smoky circus of missiles, coming out in waves upon waves.
The inbound craft were mainly Sholagars - 35-ton disc-shaped craft that had instability problems in the atmosphere but were excellent interceptors and fast dogfighters in space combat. Perhaps they counted on their agility and small size to protect them from whatever space magic had happened to the Avengers.
But even they could not run from their fate. It was inevitable.
Gun ports glimmered.
One by one, they also mysteriously exploded before reaching medium range.
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#FLEETCOM
SLS_Hoel Switching from Bracketing Fire to AA Mode.
SLS_Hoel This is too overkill against single fighters.
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The rest of the Kurita fighter force had by now also reached the outermost boundary of LRM range.
Those connected to BROTHER EYE could see the trails of LRM volleys crossing the gap, and the weight of missile throw weight from the ELH side was obviously much weaker. Not just because of the fewer fightercraft, but only half those fightercraft carried long range missiles in the first place. The four Pocket WarShips contributed about half the throw weight in missile ordnance.
Extended LRMs each had a booster stage that gave them twice the range of a standard LRM, but essentially 'wasting' half the shots per ton of a standard LRM bin. They also had twice the minimum range, and would not reliably arm or hit anything below that range because the booster stage needed to burn out for any vector control first. This however also meant that while they could not be guided by Artemis FCS, the standard LRM's longest effective range was their medium range and thus the retained more energy and could maneuver to track the enemy more effectively in that range band. DropShips could more luxuriously spend tens of tons in ammo stocks than fightercraft.
Ordnance glimmered in the void like a moonlight reflecting on a running stream as both volleys made contact. The glow of thrusters became like a rippling wave. BROTHER EYE relayed estimated hits on the tactical screen.
Laser Anti-Missile Systems had managed to thin out the incoming missile barrages to the point the damage was about equal between two forces. There were few direct losses.
Fightercraft now embroiled with each other, more fragile ones just breaking into pieces under weapons fire as both groups smashed into and past each other.
Here and there, Kurita fightercraft would also mysteriously explode even as they skirmished at high speed. All were like fireflies dancing in the night, blinking in and out moving in seemingly random patterns.
With the hunched-over appearance of their hull, the four PWS slowly and leisurely moved through the battle zone like sharks among a shoal of fighting fish.
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"What just happened?!" Captain Sanjuro Takamichi of the Overlord DropShip screamed for answers from his crew. "The Warlord is listening to us right now! What trickery is this?!"
Space combat was the domain of the Draconis Combine Admiralty, the space force separate from the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery, the army. Traditionally the DCA and the DCMS held a rivalry occasionally stoked by the Coordinators to drive performance, but here with the operation at a critical juncture, all blame could only fall on Admiral Randolf Nitta in the carrier DCS HAGURE.
"Lasers," one of the bridge crew relayed the answer. "Lasers are normally invisible in space. We can only adjust our Target-Tracking System to overlay beam paths as we take battle damage… but those Avengers took so much damage so quickly, we didn't realize what was happening until some diffraction could be seen through the clouds of explosive gases."
"This is Yoriyoshi," the General spoke through comms. "What is happening? What is the DCA doing? What has the Light Horse done?"
"Tai-sho, the Light Horse Assault DropShips… they have some sort of, of… super laser, or something. Assuming that they are able to concentrate fire on the Avengers, this would place their range far beyond PPCs."
"Extended Range Lasers," breathed Yoriyoshi. "Lostech!"
"As you say, Tai-sho."
Yoriyoshi could only sit and brood with worry. This was all completely Nitta's field.
In the vacuum of space, there was little that could light up as the high-energy beam passed through to vaporize them. PPCs still kept their appearance as streaks of lightning due to carrying charged particles with the bolt.
As lasers were still invisible in space, unlike with LRMs, the bright streak of PPC bolts, or the radar-trackable projectiles of autocannons, there was no warning at all that the enemy was doing something at lightspeed.
Unlike fighting in the atmosphere there was no way to gauge actual maximum effective range until something was being hit.
The Eridani Light Horse have lostech. Yes, his plan was correct. There was a trove waiting for them down there. They would only fight this hard to deny the Dragon their due. They just had to punch through these Davion mayflies and land on Galtor. Six regiments should be more than enough to take a world without any old fortifications. More regiments were waiting in JumpShips at the Jump Points of Reisling's Planet ready to jump in as soon as the Benjamin Regulars could send word.
If ninety fighters were not enough, then… it was a good time to remember that the Ares Conventions, which had already been discarded anyway, did not prohibit the use of nuclear munitions in space.
The Coordinator, in giving him command over six regiments, one of which was a Sword of Light Regiment, was a gesture of extreme trust. His star, having risen as far as it could ever go as a Warlord of the Draconis Combine, could only now fall. He had to defend his assertions with his own life if necessary.
The bridge continued their report "The DCS HIRANO and the MEGUMI have taken a broadside position in between the landing ships and the enemy. We do have thirty against their four. As the Light Horse assault ships are accelerating, they have to maneuver to slow down and match the heading else they would slam right into our formation and be attacked from all sides."
Sensible, yet this did not please Yoriyoshi. The guns of the Transport DropShips were property of the DCMS, and they were covering for the DCA's weakness.
His Overlord was at the center of the formation, and should be safe and anonymous enough.
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#GALTORCOM
* Mrgv_Douglass_(12thVega) What in god's name was that?!
* Mrgv_Douglass_(12thVega) Is this… is this why you call Assault DropShips like that… as Pocket WARSHIPS?
* BrvG_Armstrong_(ELHc) Yes, we do have Capital Weaponry.
* BrvG_Armstrong_(ELHc) Yes, Hanse Davion also now knows how to build Capital Lasers.
* Lt.G_Mandella_(33Hussr) This is magical.
* Lt.G_Mandella_(33Hussr) Kill them all.
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The Draconis Combine Admiralty used "Flight" instead of "Squadron" and the same six craft in a Flights were arranged into two Flights to a Company, and three Companies to a Wing, and three Wings to an Air Regiment. 6/12/36/108.
Captain (Tai-i) Ippei Holgersson commanded the 451th Ghost Dagger Company, coming out of the Air Wing of the Vengeance-class DCS BAKEMONO. His 12 craft were separated into two flights- a "breakthrough squadron" of composed mainly of fast interceptors like the 25-ton SB-27 Sabre and 35-ton SL-21 Sholagar, and a "superiority squadron" composed of medium to heavy fighters like the 65-ton SL-17 Shilone and 80-ton Slayer, with a sprinkling of other heavy fighters as available.
He felt the coppery taste of coming from the roof of his mouth as his Slayer flipped around abruptly, trying to counter its forward momentum and keeping track of an enemy fighter that just passed by.
At these extreme velocities, even a dropship zipped along at speeds where human reaction times ceased to matter. The clumps of fighters smashed into and through each other's flight groupings.
Squadrons picked squadrons to fight. Fightercraft twisted about to follow the tail of the four DroSTs, as all craft were much more vulnerable in their rear arc.
The Draconis Combine had some of the best mechwarriors in the Inner Sphere, and also some of the best fighter pilots. The competition between the DCA and the DCMS meant that pilots sought to almost suicidal levels whatever scrap of glory they could take. The DCMS often had the lion's share of publicity as they claimed worlds and fought with BattleMechs. The DCA could only retort that, barring the usual failures and incompetence of ground-pounders, the Admiralty and its fighters had so far in every encounter with the enemy been undefeated.
They cleared the way for the army. They covered the army in their retreat. They were the reason that Combine JumpShips were safe and armies could always break orbit to lick their wounds in disgrace.
Sometimes the only way to win a contest where you were severely outmatched was not to play at all. Reducing the disadvantage was not in itself a winning move, and sometimes even parity was little better than a loss - a pyrrhic victory for you to lose the war by winning the battle.
The Eridani Light Horse were outnumbered almost 2 to 1 and that was often insurmountable odds. Holgersson curled his lips back in a sneer. He had no pity for fools.
Brave, but foolish. As everyone would eventually discover the futility of baring their teeth against the Dragon!
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By contrast, Eridani Light Horse ASF piloting was… also quite good. Although they lacked the years of rigorous study inside an Academy, what they had was mountains of practical experience. As part of a combined-arms force they had to be good at both void fighting and ground support. They were used to fighting outnumbered.
But as a brigade-level force, ELH aerospace power never really amounted to much more than a squadron per battalion, nor ever massed as 9 squadrons/54 fighters in a single SLDF Aero Wing since the days of the Star League.
These eight squadrons assigned to a single regiment was the most that the ELH had ever fielded in any one time. The Eridani Light Horse had never employed that many ASF pilots in their history.
Lt. Commander Norvals Rieken knew the secret as to how this was possible.
Like many of the troops taken from the other regiments in the Eridani Light Horse RCT, he was given a direct promotion and given command of four squadrons. The secret was that instead of 48 fighters in a wing, there were only 24 pilots. That was well within the manpower capacity of the Light Horse.
A Pegasus has two wings. He commanded half of the 48 craft trying to match up against 74, so of his 24 craft, there were only 12 actual pilots, and thus two actual squadrons. Well within his own ability to command.
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