Chapter 7 - Humans vs Elcor

System Allaince vs Courts of Dekuuna
Space Battle
Arrae System

Fleet Groups:

CD fleet groups:
Dreadnought group – (Dreadnought and 4 frigates)
3 Cruiser groups – (5 cruisers)
10 mixed groups – (2 cruisers and 3 frigates)
10 frigate groups – ( 5 frigates)

SA fleet groups:
Carrier group – (Carrier and 3 frigates)
Dreadnought group – (Dreadnought and 3 frigates)
4 heavy groups – (4 Heavy Cruisers)
12 medium groups - (Heavy Cruiser and 3 frigates)
13 light groups – ( 4 frigates)

The Alliance fleet maintained formation in orbit of the planet Erros, the first planet of the system. The choice of where to start the battle was random, so he had to start by dividing the fleet into smaller elements and start searching for the Elcor fleet. The battle would come down to whoever could find each other first. Counts of Dekuuna had one of the weaker point defense systems, focusing more on the armor and firepower of their ships.

Conversely, the Alliance System had large numbers of fighters and expensive missiles but would have no chance in a direct artillery battle due to relatively weak kinetic barriers. Maybe in a decade or two, when there will be a new generation of cruisers and frigates.

But for now, they need to start reconnaissance. One medium group at a time was sent to check for any signs of Elcor activity on the remaining 3 planets and the sun.

The Elcor Admiral knew that if the Alliance spread out and tried to fight in smaller groups, with fighter support. He needed to find them quickly and overwhelm them before they could deploy their fighters and start fighting throughout the system. Therefore, he had to quickly decide how to react.

Since he was over the planet Nirrus, a gas giant with a belt around it, he ordered the fleet to quickly spread out in the belt and send one mixed group to each planet and sun, and leave one over the planet to make it look like a regular scan.

The Human Admiral was checking reports from his scouting parties. He couldn't find the main Elcor fleet anywhere, only his mixed groups. He quickly deduced two approaches where there could be a fleet on the other side of the sun from the one he was checking, or in the belt of the gas giant, maybe even within the giant itself.

Suddenly inspiration came to him. Although there was a chance that the Elkor were on the other side of the sun, they were most likely hiding in a gas giant. He quickly developed a plan to lay siege to this planet and prepared for all ships to set out. But not before he ordered everyone to fire one missile salvo to get rid of the Elcor battle group over this planet.

The Elcor Admiral saw that he had actually managed to lure the Alliance fleet into a decisive battle over this planet. But unfortunately, they came prepared and in 5 groups.

The 4 smaller ones consisted of 1 Heavy Group, 2 Medium Groups and 2 Light Groups were spaced thousands of kilometers apart from the middle group consisting of Dreadnought Group, Carrier Group and 5 Frigate Groups.

The main group began to move away a bit and send a horde of 120 Triden SX3 Fighters, while the smaller groups sent 36 of the same fighters each, for a total of 264, which is almost the same number of fighters the Elcors have.

Fighters began searching for targets in the asteroid belt and the gas giant, while the Alliance fleet was prepared to launch a rapid bombardment upon the sight of Elcor ships, effectively taking the initiative. The Elcor Admiral quickly began counterattacking the Human Fighter Squadrons and preparing for a counterattack.

The Alliance Admiral quickly began receiving reports of fighter combat in the Asteroid Belt, but none in the gas giant. The Elcor fighters maintained the advantage as only a fraction of his fighters moved into the Asteroid Belt, and the much heavier armor of the Elcor fighters began to gain the advantage, eliminating 38 of his fighters at the cost of barely 14 of their own.

He quickly redirected fighters from the gas giant and sent another 60 from the carrier to tip the scales in his favor and in the following minutes the losses were more even, with both sides losing 23 fighters each. It may take some time, but slowly eliminating the fighter forces will allow you to gain the advantage.

But just to be sure, he deployed 80 Bumblebee Bombers and 40 Trishul Interceptors to counter any counterattacks from mixed groups on other planets. This is not enough to destroy an attack of 20 ships, but it is enough to slow them down and give other squadrons a chance to launch. Overall, the Alliance fleet gained the upper hand in this battle.

The Elcor Admiral began to review the situation. Despite the losses of fighters and the Humans slowly gaining the advantage, he still had a good chance of victory. But first he had to wait a few more minutes.

The gas giant was gathering ships, a total of 1 Dreadnought Group, 1 Cruiser Group, 3 Mixed Groups and 5 Frigate Groups. He prepared them for a spindle formation and ordered the remaining ships to prepare for the attack as well, and ordered all other Mixed Groups in orbit of other planets to prepare for the attack.

After all, a flagship is worth 1/5 of the fleet.

Subsequent fighter engagements resulted in the loss of 37 Alliance fighters and 48 Elcor fighters. The Alliance Admiral looked on with pride. His Support Craft advantage increased from 3:1 to 4:1. At this point, he will eliminate all Elcor pilots and he will be able to continue scanning in peace.

Then the Elcor ships moved. All of them!

The Alliance Admiral immediately slammed his hand down on his station, realizing the mistake he had made. He completely neglected fighter reconnaissance to gain the advantage in Dogfight. Now his fleet began to take hits.

All Elcr ships emerged from the asteroid belts and the gas giant and began FTL onto the backs of its task forces. What's more, they focused on the Z-axis so much that they didn't have to worry about friendly fire. Fortunately, the Elcor Admiral will split them up to catch most of his battle groups, with only 2 Mixed Groups being on the back of his command group. His 80 Bombers and 40 Interceptors should be fine.

The commander of one of the Mixed Groups could only watch as a wave of Support Ships rushed towards his ships. Worse, 2/3 of them are bombers. And his own fighters are still in the hangars.

He lost and had no way to retreat, so the only thing left to do was tighten the formation, raise all available energy to the Kinetic Barriers and GARDIAN system, and start bombarding the Alliance frigates.

He was right that the attack would be painful. 80 Bumblebee Bombers carrying 16 Disruptor Torpedos per bomber, for a total of 1,280 small torpedoes flew towards it.

Or at least that's what it had. GARDIAN shelling reduced this number slightly, but they were annihilated nonetheless. At least they took 24 Humans bombers with them and blocked the way for a possible FTL escape.

The Alliance Admiral watched as the enemy Dreadnought closed in on his command group, with only hordes of fighters blocking their path. The frigates added their small guns and torpedoes, but it was not enough.

Additionally, the Elcor were very intelligent and 3 Mixed Groups of Elcor concentrated their fire on the carrier, his flagship, while an Elcor Dreadnought massacred his Everest-class and finally, the rest destroyed the frigates.

It was better on the flanks. Outnumbered and relatively uncoordinated, he managed to destroy 10 Elcor ships at the cost of 3 frigates, but the fighting escalated and his center group had already lost 7 frigates, with only an Elcor cruiser and 2 frigates responding with their guns.

Delta Group, one of the units grouped on the flanks, fought against the emerging Elcor ships. Their guns were thundering, and although the Humans were outnumbered, the Elcor had more firepower and better barriers and armor. If it weren't for the second group of fighters ready to attack, they would probably be overwhelmed. They drove into the middle of the Elcor formation and attacked the 3 command ships of the 3 Elcor groups. Tracking based on communications was not difficult and the entire group of fighters had almost 100 torpedoes, which should have been enough.

After this salvo, the Elcor lost their chain of command and were slowly eliminated by Alliance fire. Despite this, they destroyed 4 frigates, and their armor meant that apart from the cruiser and 2 frigates that led their groups, the rest only suffered damage of varying degrees.

The Elcor Admiral looked at his handiwork. The enemy command group has already lost half of its ships, only frigates, and the rest are damaged. In this case, he will snatch victory from the hands of Alliance.

At least that's what he hoped, but his losses were mounting quickly as well. Enemy fighters and bombers that were active fired their charges and due to previous losses in fighters and even current ones, the Alliance had a significant advantage there and made many successful approaches that eliminated many ships, mainly command ships, slowly eliminating its command composition.

Then he saw the enemy dreadnought explode. He knew that he or Carrier would be the flagship, and Carrier was also targeted. He will win soon.

The commander of the Alpha System Alliance group, the one that performed the best, having only to repel the attack of two mixed groups, almost destroyed his opponents, at the cost of 5 frigates.

But after the loss of the Dreadnought, the headquarters group was almost annihilated. They were winning on the flanks, mostly, but they couldn't support the command group. Therefore, the admiral gave him command. The Elcors still lost more and suffered significant damage to the rest of the fleet. If they play it well, they can still win.

But time was running out and he knew it.

Then he got the signal about the end of the match and saw what happened. They lost the command ship and their losses exceeded 30%. They lost.

Result:
Courts of Dekuuna Victory

Units Remaining:
SA:0 Dreadnought, 0 Carier, 28 Heavy Cruisers, 50 Frigates, 416 Support Craft
CD:1 Dreadnought, 16 Cruisers, 53 Frigates, 185 Support Craft

=CNN studio=

"An expensive match of an expensive round and the near victory of the Elcor." - said Seyifma Besava.

Then Admiral Batarina interjected - "Rather expected. Humanity won the previous match by sheer luck. Now she actually faced a real enemy. If I was in command, I would have achieved a spectacular victory like before against the Volus."

"Isn't that a bit harsh? After all, they destroyed more ships and left many others damaged."

"They lost and that's all that matters."

"But the Elcor command group was effectively surrounded, and the flankers were already collapsing. And most of the SA cruisers were relatively undamaged..."

"The only thing the Humans have are hordes of fighters in which at least a few have nukes and that's why they manage to win at all. It's good that the Elcors are equally weak, it shows why their Alliance, which is a stupid name for a government, is not suitable to be in the same league as us. And now, goodbye!"

Admiral Batarian has left the studio. But Seyifma had to continue - "As you can see, the close victory of the Elcors and the narrow defeat of the SA shows this clash as a tactical victory for the Elcors. Goodbye for the next clash in our War Games."