Star Wars: The United Terran Federation
Chapter 8: Meeting and Battle
35 BBY / June 2056
Sundari royal palace
Mandalore, Mandalore system
On a planet with a vast amount of white sand that covered almost all of the landscape, with the many abandoned and lifeless craters that only exist to remember the times of death and destruction that could be seen in every direction.
The only hint of life that exists on this dead rock, where the few objects that could be seen poking out of the sand. The most notable one's being the few domed cities that were scattered around the planet.
The most important of these domed cities was Sundari, the planet's capital. The capital of a planet that was remembered to be blood soaked from the many wars fought once on it. A planet well known for its warriors, their training and the special metal armor they wear, or at least the armor they used to wear.
Mandalore.
Inside these domed cities, people could be seen walking around in the many walkways the city had. Automatic transports could be seen flying through the air, taking people from one place to another, while under the protection of their police force, providing protection to these people in exchange for the money they get paid with from the government's taxes upon the people.
A planet that was once a place of war, was now a place of peace. But the true question for some would be how long; how long until their precious peace was broken.
Within the Sundari royal palace, Duchess Satine, the leader of Mandalore had the festering feeling that the peace that she had created for her people may soon be coming to an end, because of the fact that a small force of three ships had entered orbit and wanted to speak with her immediately.
When asked who they were, they explained that they were a diplomatic team from the Terran federation who wanted to disguise something along the lines of a trade deal.
While she didn't know who these Terrans were, a report from the Republic senate indicated that these people were untrustworthy savages. However, she never did completely trust the Republic to give the full story regarding these people, especially when the republic ambassador reported that they were warmongers, yet they come to the planet with a message of peace and trade.
That, and they had also said that they didn't have hyperdrive technology which was also something that the republic ambassador also claimed they didn't have.
Soon enough, one of her royal guards walked into the room with five people in tow.
"Duchess Satine, the Terran diplomats." The guard quickly.
The Duchess soon gestures for the diplomats to sit down at the table.
A moment of silence filled the room. Taking an opportunity, she took a quick look at these Terrans, because from her past experience, just looking at how someone dressed could mean many things.
The first two, who were still standing at the time, appeared to be wearing a dark green military uniform, meaning that they were most likely the Terran bodyguards.
The next two were well dressed individuals, but they seemed a little young for full diplomats, so they were most likely assistance to the fifth Terran.
Speaking of him, older man, well dressed, and physically fit. Seeming a simple gentleman, that was until she saw the man's eyes.
When looking into a man's eyes most people just see the color and nothing more. But when she saw his eyes, she saw eyes just like many of her own people before she became Duchess.
The eyes of a soldier.
The same man then cleared his throat, before beginning his speech.
"Duchess, I am Ambassador Terrance Ford of the Terran Federation, next to me are my assistants and our bodyguards who are standing behind us." Gesturing to said people in order.
"Mr. Ford, as a diplomatic representative of your Terran Federation, could you explain why you have warships in orbit?" Said the Duchess, raising her voice in consearn for her people.
The Terran ambassador soon chuckles in embarrassment like a kid caught in the proverbial cookie jar before replying, "I'm sorry for the warships, but some people in our government wanted to make sure we were protected. I only wanted to take a single ship, but better be prepared for anything then not prepared at all."
It was true that he only wanted to bring along a single ship with him, but command wanted him, and his team to protect, even with the stretched resources they had. Two frigates and a destroyer, not much in a fight, but could hold their own.
Satine nodded her head in understanding, only a fool would go anywhere without any sort of protection.
She then asked, "So, I curiously. Why are you here, Mr. Ambassador?"
The man took a moment before replying, "I am here to discuss a possible trade agreement between the Terran people and Mandalore that could benefit both parties." The Duchess eyed the man with extreme contempt, she knew he also wanted something else for her people, but she wasn't what she was, but there were many good ideas.
One being the Mandalorian steel, beskar. Lightsaber proof, Blaster proof as well as very strong, it was quite durable and valuable, especially on the black market.
She then inquired further by saying, "But I am getting the destined feeling that you want something else from my world, Mr. Ambassador."
However, she did not expect his response. The truth.
"You see ma'am, we do want something. We want to hire MandalMotors to build some ships, however, we would need your blessings before that could happen."
It took a few moments of wondering why they would need her permission to build some ships.
They wanted to build warships.
The Duchess's face turned red in rage, and with a snarl in her voice she responded…
"How dare you come to my world, where war destroyed nearly all of it while asking us to build warships for you!"
Before she could go any further into her rant, the Terran diplomat suggested listening to why they wanted the ships in the first place before condemning them. It worked and the Mandalorian Duchess soon calmed down, before allowing the Terran to continue.
"You see Duchess, we are a small nation. We don't have the need shipyards yet to build the need ships to protect our new colonies. That is the main reason why we came here, not because we want your resources, but your help. And in exchange, we're willing to help your people in any way we can."
"And besides, we don't exactly trust the Republic. You can look at your own history to prove it."
The Duchess was at a pause, these people only asking for her help to protect their people, and here she was, yelling at them in outrage.
It was a political tactic, of course, and it did work a bit. But unfortunately, her response to his statement was not what he was looking for.
"While I am sorry for your situation, I'm afraid I can't agree with your request." Said the truthful sorry Duchess.
However, his response to her last statement completely threw her off balance and began to make her reconsider what she had said.
"Then I guess we're alone to fight the pirate siege at Duntose."
Unbeknownst to him, he began to start changing the pacifist Duchess, in which way she should change, only fate knows.
(Meaning, I would like you, the readers to vote which way Sainte should change, more like self-defense or more of a gung-ho kind of person.)
In Hyperspace, in route to the Kontos System
Task force Freedom First
Mississippi class destroyer: TFS Nero
POV (Admiral Louis Claude)
Admiral Louis Claude, Former Admiral of the French Navy, currently the top-ranking Admiral in the computer simulated Terran space combat exercise and current commander of Task Force Freedom First in the Terran peoples first space military operation.
Operation Count Pirate. Their mission, attack and destroy the Pirate fleet within the system and save the colony. Simple really.
His Combat force Consisted of six Martin class Frigates and two Mississippi class destroyers and two Harmony Heavy cargo careers, one of which was modified to become a temporary light carrier while the second one was modified to be a heavy troop carrier for the ground forces that were under Brigadier General Holland Hathaway that would support what remand of the ground defenders.
On the temporary light carrier Little Me, was a strike force of three fighter squadrons that would support the fleet. Two Z-95 headhunter squadrons and a single experimental FS-25 multi-role/space superiority fighter squadron was his fleet's fighter force.
Admiral Louis was never a big fighter fan. While he understood the importance of fighter craft, in all seven of the simulated space battles that he was a part of, every time he won by use of superior fire power and tight formations to provide tight overlapping AA fire. So yes, he was indeed very confident. Maybe a little too confident, his subordinates would instead say he was very arrogant.
And being such a confident man, his battle plan was a simple one.
His forces would enter the system, and split into two groups, the first would be the man battle group consisting of three frigates and his two destroyers and the second being the reserves/bait force consisting of three frigates and the two Harmony Heavy cargo carriers.
The First Battle group with the fleet flagship, TFS Nero, would advance into the system and attack any Isolated ships before they could regroup. Then once the Pirate regroups, they will attack from range and pursue the enemy until they are either destroyed, retreating or surrender.
The second battle group will have one mission, to provide a base for fighter support and to become a very tempting target to draw out the Pirate scum and destroy them in one swift attack.
Admiral Louis Claude was completely sure that this plan of his was sure it would work. It was both simple and effective, and in his mind, the plan was fool proof, even after being told by many others, including the other captains of his task force and some other admirals at command.
Enjoying his last cup of coffee for the time being, as he just finished it, one of his bridge officers then spoke up, stating for a moment, "Sir, where one minute from the Kontos System."
The French Admiral quickly put the empty cup of coffee down before stating in his very heavy accented voice, "All right, send a message to the fleet, stand by for battle."
As the crews of his ships went to their stations, they prepared all weapons for combat, double checked all systems where finishing including all backups, and the shields where charred and at full strength. Everyone was nervous (besides the French Admiral), this would be the first true space battle for the Terran navy, with well trained, but inexperienced crews.
As the Terran Fleet exited hyperspace, sensors began to take full scans of the entire system. They immediately, detect two small forces of ships, one consisting of a Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser, one Carrack-class light cruiser, and several corvettes along with a squadron of CloakShape fighters pursuing the second group of ships that where apparently the remains of the Kontos system TDF fleet, only consisting of one badly damaged Carrack-class light cruiser, and two damaged CR70 Corvettes.
'I'm surprised that the weak fleet lasted this long,' thought the arrogant French Admiral, 'well let's go save them.'
Before he could say anything, his com officer called out to him.
"Sir, TDFS Temperance is hailing us."
"All right, let's see how they are doing."
The Holographic Projector came to life, showing a rough old man with gray hair and beard, with an obvious bandage on his head and large bags of exhaustion under his eyes. Louis quickly recognizes the person as Commodore James, the commander of the local TDF forces.
Just as the Admiral was about to speak, the Commodore Interrupted him.
"Great, they sent you Frenchie." he said with complete annoyance in his voice.
The Frenchmen soon responded with equal annoyance in his voice, "Let me remind you that you will address me as Admiral, Commodore."
The sassy Commodore soon replied "No, I won't. And since I'm not part of the navy, you can't reprimand me, so ha."
The Admiral took a moment to prepare a counterargument, that in the current battle, he was the battlefield commander so his last point didn't count and that he could indeed reprimand him but was again interrupted by the Commodore.
"Frenchie don't start. Right now, I got pirates on my ass and my ships are just about to fall apart. You're the new local commander, so what did you want me to do?"
"I want you to form up with the Commodore Gamble group and support them, while my group engages them."
"So, you're just going to charge right into the enemy fleet without actually any sort of battle plan? Great way to get your people killed."
"I don't care what you think Commodore, get going to the second group. That's an order."
The Holographic Projector soon turned off as the Admiral turn to his command crew, the giving orders out to his group to make way and pursue the now escaping pirate force at full speed along with the two deployed the two Z95-HeadHunters fighter squadrons as an escort, while the FS-25 squadron deployed to protect the second group.
As the Five Terran ship force with fighters chased after the pirates, not bothering to check to find out what the low power jamming, that was being done by persons unknown, was doing.
35 BBY / June 2056
Sundari royal palace
Mandalore, Mandalore system
Two hours later
Terrance had decided after two hours of negotiating, that his father was right.
Women can be extremely stubborn in regards to negotiation and ideology, especially when the two comes together, even if her people would benefit greatly from the deal he was offering.
In the last couple of hours, they had been going back-and-forth trying to get it better leverage by way of talking about the problems and consequences of the deal, like the duchess's making the remark that a republic force could be dispatched and destroy the new Mandalorian made Taryn ships and then afterwards, Mandalore would and was probably would receive a similar treatment compared to mass use of weapons of mass destruction against their world.
However, the counter argument could then be made, stating that they would eventually tell the republic and mentioned that this would be a solely a defending military force, manly used against pirates like the ones launching a full scale invasion of the Kontos System, but also could be used as defense force in regard to the rest of the unknown regions and potentially dangerous in there.
The Mandalorian politician quickly countered by stating the pure size and number of ships they would want would desecrate their arguments for a simple defense force, and that in fear of invasion, the republic would launch a full invasion before the Terrans could get too strong.
Terrance would then counter that they just wouldn't build any battleships or Dreadnoughts yet, instead focusing on cruisers and carriers.
He then quickly continued his argument that if the core worlds didn't try to force them into anything, the Terran government wouldn't do anything in the first place that wouldn't need to provoke a response of that magnitude and that republic wouldn't do anything or risk large amounts of economic damage from any war they cause.
As time passed and more arguments were used, the duchess was starting to have less and less arguments to go against the skilled Terran diplomat. Most people by now would have finally agreed, especially with the great amounts of economic gain that they would receive from this simple contract.
However, the stubborn duchess still wouldn't budge on her stance.
If you look at Terrance Ford, you could say that he had a stone locked face. But if you look at him much closer, or more precisely his eyes you could see something else.
Frustration.
He was Frustrated beyond belief. He was trying so hard to make this deal work, but the blond woman kept making it harder and harder to strike a deal. Going from one compromise to another, another argument then only to be counter with another counterargument.
Despite his frustration, he Kept pushing and soon he believed he could play his negation trump card very soon.
"I'm still not sure about doing this, Ambassador Ford no matter what you might say, in my opinion, the risk was still too large, both on my planet's economy and my people." She paused before resuming her argument. "Even without building these battleships, the others could early attract unwanted action from the republic to your people and that they could end up just like my own."
"Duchess, I understand your concern, however it should be the republic who should be careful of us."
"Why should the republic be concerned about you when they are much more powerful in terms of manpower and industrial might?"
The Terran took a moment before replying, scaring the duchesses in the process.
"That is because, currently my people have the largest stockpile in the galaxy of nuclear weapons and counter radiation devices."
At that moment, if a hole opened up underneath her, she wouldn't have noticed it.
In the Kontos System
Task force Freedom First / Battle Group One
Mississippi class destroyer: TFS Nero
POV (Admiral Louis Claude)
'What the hell are you doing?' Thought the French Admiral.
Ever since battle group one began to chase the pirate force, they had done something he knew was possible but didn't think they would actually do.
Run away from him, farther away into the systems.
In all intents and purposes, the pirates shouldn't run away farther into a star system. This is because of the fact that by doing so would be very dangerous because of the planet's gravitational fields.
This is because of the fact that large objects in space create a 'shadow' which would pull ships out of hyperspace and prevent them from entering hyperspace in order to escape if they needed to.
But by going further into the solar system could only mean one thing.
They're trying to lure his force into a trap.
It's only the reason for the pirates to go farther into the system.
Yet, this was also impassible.
This was because of the fact that they were entering farther into the system, where there was no place where any force could be hiding in the inner part of the system.
No asteroids, moon's or anything. It was so maddening, it seemed to be a trap, but how they would deploy the trap upon his forces was simply beyond him.
'Clocked ships, mine felids maybe' thought the now seemingly worried Admiral. 'Calm down, if you panic now, you'll get your people killed.'
As he keeps staring down at the holo image of the pirate force he is currently pursuing.
As he pondered what to do next, his XO walked up to him and asked him, "Sir, we have been firing range for the last forty minutes. Why haven't we fired?"
The French man soon responded, "Mon ami, the reason why we aren't firing is because I don't want to lose the element of surprise of our range weaponry." His XO gave him a puzzling look before he stated, "The reason why I don't want to lose the element of surprise is because I believe they are luring us into a trap of some sort."
As if a command was telepathic set to the entire bridge crew, they all turned to the admiral with wide eyes and hanging jaws.
His XO quickly asked the question the whole crew was wondering, "Why? Why are we heading towards a trap?"
"That's simple, since we don't know where the majority of their fleet is, and I believe that we can use this trap to our advantage and use it to find their fleet."
While pursuing the pirate ships, he had received an intelligence report from Commodore James about the strength and numbers. Apparently, the pirates had a total strength of around five Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers, four Carrack-class light cruisers, and with around 22 corvettes along with a minimal fighter escort.
It was an obvious fact that the missing ships were prepared somewhere, ready to spring a trap.
The XO quietly caught on to what he was saying, "So, we will use their own trap against them and trap the trapper?"
"That's the plan. Since the range of their weapons are around 1,000 kilometers, I plan to hit them in full force before they can get too close, and if they do get close, we hit them hard with the Javelin's and our Titan Nukes."
"It's a sound plan sir."
As the Terran force pursued the pirate force they approached the innermost planet in the system, something happened. A small red rock that had not absolutely and had nothing on it. Yet, the pirate fleet finally did what the admiral expected them to do sooner or later.
They turned around and appeared to face his forces in battle. The pirate trap was about be sprung against them.
"All hands battle stations, target the enemy fleet, all batterers prepare to fire."
As the sound of the engines roar in the vacuum of space, the two different groups of ships begin to get closer to one another. The power of their weapons begins to rise and begins to turn at each other.
As time passed faster and faster, so did the distance bet the two sets of ships got closer. 4,000 km, 3,500 km, 3,000 km, 2,500 km, 2,000 km. The ships kept getting closer and closer.
"Don't fire until they are only 1,500 km." said Admiral Louis Claude.
A member of the crew spoke up, "1,900 km, 1,800 km, 1,700 km, 1,600 km …."
The Admiral closed his eyes and waited for the right words to be spoken.
Then the words were spoken.
"Admiral, we are 1,500 km from the enemy force."
The French man's eyes opened wide, and with one mighty voice he roared, "All batterers, Open fire."
Large 6 inch and 10 inch slugs came out the many turrets on the Terran ships, and as soon as they were fired, they slammed right into their enemy ships.
The Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser and the Carrack-class light cruiser took the initial hit from the Terran weapons, however the corvettes got worse of the Terran guns.
Three of the seven corvettes were instantly destroyed while all of the others lost their shields and took different amounts of damage.
To any of the pirates, this one fact alone could be very terrifying, as seeing any ship being destroyed in one hit. However, their fear grew many times greater as the ships entered the range of just before 1,000 km.
Again, the Terran guns roared, this time, the result was much more devastating.
The shields of Dreadnought instantly collapsed but no damage was done to the ship, the Carrack-class light cruiser was heavily damaged and started to go out of control and started to drift.
And again, the corvettes were hit the worst.
Of the original seven corvettes, only one remained and it was heavily damaged and was unable to fight.
However, the pirates soon returned the favor.
As Turbolasers hit the Terran ships, their shields held but were slowly being depleted.
By the time the Terran ships' shields reached just above 50% strength, the remaining pirate ships were destroyed by the third set rounds from the Terran ships.
The Terran Admiral was surprised, 'that way too easy' he thought to himself.
As if the universe wanted to prove him wrong, an alarm sounded and a crew member soon spoke up and said, "Sir, there are around sixty contests coming out of hyperspace." This came as a complete surprise to everyone.
The Admiral quickly responded by ordering the ships to turn around towards the incoming ships.
Then the sixty ships came out of hyperspace. However, they weren't what he expected, but when he realized what they were, his face turned white.
Fighter craft.
All sixty of them were Fighter craft. CloakShape fighters to be precise. And all of them were charging at his fleet.
Realizing what was happening, he immediately spoke up and ordered, "Get the point defense system online, they are coming in for a bombing run."
The point defense system immediately came online and started blasting at the incoming fighter craft.
From the auto-canon point defense turrets with brand new x-ray laser batteries, the fighter crafts start being picked off as each second past. Not even after 30 seconds, half of the fighters were destroyed and wiped out. However, by this time, all the remaining fighters had launched their proton torpedoes at the Terran ships and attempted to flee from the battlefield.
Within moments the Thirty torpedoes were reduced to a mere ten. However, the last ten hit the Terran force.
Three of the torpedoes hit one frigate bringing its shields to a minimum. A destroyer was also hit by another two torpedoes but only the shield was damaged. However, the worst damage was done to the command ship.
Five torpedoes hit the ship, the first four taking out the shields while the last one penetrated the ship's armor, right at the point of the armor that was closest to the bridge.
Just before the Terran Admiral blacked out, he wondered how their trap worked in the first place.
35 BBY / June 2056
Sundari royal palace
Mandalore, Mandalore system
As the sun was setting on Mandalore, a man was walking towards the space port with a gentle smile and a data pad in his hand.
He knows that because of this deal, his people's futures were secure.
In the Sundari royal palace, the duchess could be seen, thinking about what she has done and if she did the right thing.
Hello there, StarTrekBattlestar123AMF here. I hope you all enjoyed the story so far.
Please do give me some reviews, I would love to hear all your feedback about my first try at a fanfiction and thank you for your reviews so far.
The next chapters will not be coming for possibly a few weeks because I am going to be getting a job soon, so I'll be very busy but I will get this story done. You all have my word.
Thank you for your time to read my story, have a nice day.
From StarTrekBattlestar123AMF, Peace and long life.