Disclaimer, I wrote this because some people said it would be a good way to get a better understanding of the english language, so I am sorry for any grammatical errors and would love if they were pointed out.
I don't own Mass effect and this story has heavy influence from the book series "the lost fleet" it's not a crossover though
I hope anyone who read this enjoy, there will be more chapters... hopefully
Sindra Frontier System - 3º Shaanxi Defense Fleet - 07 August 2356 - 0438 Hours
Senior Commanding Officer Captain Jaylen Cressida
"Septime is losing propulsion she just went ballistic." The worried voice came from one of the bridge watchstanders.
"How long until they get enough engine units to maintain acceleration with us?" This was Captain Cressida, in command of the heavy cruiser Armet and the patrol fleet.
"Septime is asking for 50 minutes and permission to run whatever engine units they can restore above safety limits." The Officer said, "At her current speed, the enemy fleet will intercept Septime in 1 hour." The navigation officer complemented.
"Septime this is Captain Cressida, we can't slow down for your vessel abandon ship. I am redirecting Basinet and Armet to pick your life pods."
Cressida barely acknowledged her officer's response, looking at the life pods quickly being ejected from Septime. Another light cruiser lost she thought, only this time the crew was saved.
Three hours ago, her patrol was made up of 23 vessels, 15 destroyers, 5 light cruisers, and 3 heavy cruisers. Then these aliens literally appeared in a flash of light in the way of her ships and now all she had were 15 vessels, 9 destroyers, 3 light cruisers and 3 heavy cruisers.
The pursuing fleet comprised of 50 vessels divided into 4 designs, all of them unknown, but her officers said they were similar analogues to their own, 30 destroyers, although they seemed less armed, 15 heavy cruisers, and the real problem, 5 battlecruisers. The name battlecruiser didn't really fit, the vessels were of the right size and armament to be battlecruisers, but they didn't have the speed normally associated with them. Cressida theorized that it could be some sort of scout or fast-response battleship.
They had come from the alien device recently found on Shanxi, a big tuning fork, and had all the Alliance nerds over it. She and her patrol were detached from the 3º Shaanxi Defense Fleet to patrol neighboring systems and weren't privy to details of what the object was or what was done on it, and to be honest, they didn't care these ships had come from it and attacked, that was all the information she needed.
"Captain, all life pods are secured, the enemy fleet has reduced its distance from us during this time, they are now only 5 light minutes away." The navigation officer made her jump back into reality. "Captain, Light cruiser Pommel reports that all of her hell-lance turrets are back online, and Heavy cruiser Lorica reports that turrets Alpha and Echo are damaged beyond field repair, and the destroyer Talwar has restored all of their engine units," Operation officer briefed her.
"Good, we jus…" she interrupted herself when all the destroyers and heavy cruisers in the enemy fleet started to gain on her fleet. They are sending the escorts ahead. She thought it was obvious that those 14 heavy cruisers alone were enough to end us. "Nav, can we make it to the jump point before they intercept us?"
"No, their intercept point will be 48 seconds away from the jump point."
"Send the navigation data to my console, and rename those 'Battlecruisers' to something else, it's an insult to call them that," the nav officer was quick to do it.
Cressida knew that her fleet couldn't take on the pursuing forces even without having to fight those now-named Fast Battleships.
Looking at the navigation display, she could see both fleets estimated orbital lines around the system. She moved the display to look at the intercept and smiled. It would happen close to the jump point, and better yet, if the enemy wanted such a thing to even happen in the first place, they would need to reach point one four light speed, far above the safety limit, to enter jump space, and her fleet would be at point one light speed inside of what is considered safe.
Engagements in space normally occur at extreme ranges, at several light seconds away and that means you are seeing the opponent's ship as it was a few seconds in the past, information about the ship heading, speed and acceleration will let you predict were the ship is in the present and then were it will be when your munitions reach the target, and of course if any course corrections or evasive maneuvers are taken you will only know several seconds later, that means you must try and predict were the ship will be, aim and shoot, and hope the opponent didn't turn in the opposite direction.
And among other things, they are in normal space and subject to the rules there, which means the faster they are, the worse the relativistic effects will be. To put it in the simplest possible terms, the perspective of everything outside of the ship gets increasingly distorted the faster they go. At point one light, we can figure out what we're looking at with some accuracy. As we get closer to the speed of light, it gets harder to tell where everything really is.
The systems can fairly accurately compensate for relativistic effects on this ship because they know what this ship is doing. For any other ship, the systems can only estimate based on what it can observe. We'd get a time-late and distorted picture of the other ship, and the resulting corrections can vary in accuracy. The image we get could differ significantly from where the other ship is actually located and from what its actual course and speed vectors are at any moment.
Assembling a new formation for her remaining vessels, all she had to do was wait for the right time, if she changed the fleet's formation too soon, the vessels pursuing it would be able to see and counter it, and they most likely would focus fire on a single ship, hoping to score enough hits to destroy it.
The worst thing about space engagements was the wait, as both fleets moved at speeds beyond human comprehension, and it still took hours or days before anything worthwhile happened. It would be another hour until she was needed again on the bridge, one hour until that fleet of unknown aliens would cross paths with her own, and such an encounter would most likely last for less than a second, and in that second, one or more of her ships might not make it.
One hour later. "Captain final reports from Light cruisers Bolo, Cercle and Crest all report that their shield emitters are working at full capacity and Crest has been able to fix their missile launchers."
The aliens were now just a few light minutes away and hadn't yet made efforts to reduce their speed. Now her ships were firing quick bursts of their maneuvering thrusters, falling into their final formation. The bigger heavy cruiser would be the closest to the enemy ships as they had the bigger armor and shields, with the smaller damaged light cruisers and destroyers on the far side of them, if she was right, the alien's plan was to diminish her already weakened forces.
At such speeds, they would only be within weapons range of each other for a maximum of a few seconds, less if she could do something about it. Those 14 heavy cruisers and those 23 destroyers would be lucky to get a single hit each, which is why no one used this type of strategy to fight. Even if they focus on a single target, it might not be enough to destroy it.
"Two minutes for contact, fleet is in position." Nav professionally reported, "Computer is tracking the recommended targets, it's giving me an 8% chance to hit something. By the ancestors, I hope their targeting computers are worse than ours."
"All vessels turn to barring 155 using Armet as a reference and reduce speed to point one light speed at the moment this message is received" their comms traveled at the speed of light, which is absurdly slow, luckily her fleet wasn't big enough to have any delay bigger than a second between all ships.
"Estimated 3 seconds of contact in five, four, three, two, one." They could feel Armet vibrating as her targeting system automatically judged the best targets and fired the hell-lances, sending plasma arcing towards the enemy formation. The human population never seemed really comfortable when automated systems chose targets and fired by themselves, but in space, where ships would be in weapons range, for only a few seconds, automated systems were necessary.
The bridge looked relieved since they weren't feeling the vessel being hit. Cressida was able to spot Crest missile ammunition readouts quickly decreasing on her screen as the Light Cruiser tried to deliver the payload the aliens denied her during their first combat.
"Lorica has been hit, she lost Beta one and Foxtrot one hell lances and has suffered permanent damage to her shield bubble, no damage to the engine units she will be able to keep up" the Bridge officer reported relieved "What about then?" Cressida practically demanded, "Confirmed hits on Heavy Cruiser 06 and Heavy Cruiser 11, 06 shielding failed, and the ship is falling behind on their formation, 11 has been hit by missiles their shields barely held, Crest got their wish, a shame we can't follow up with some plasma."
"All vessels jump at your earliest opportunity and execute evasion maneuvers as we exit jump space, may our ancestors help us."
All 15 vessels were gone into jump space in a blink, and a few seconds later, the 5 Scout battleships appeared with a bright flash of light in the projected path of the patrol fleet, just in time to see their targets vanishing.