Chapter 6 - Batarians vs Volus
Since no one sent an offer, I took it randomly. Here is the result:
Attacker: Batarian Hegemony
Defender: Vol Protectorate
Convoy escort
Cacus system
Transportation of 100 transports from the planet Vemal to Trebin.
VP fleet groups:
Dreadnought group – (Dreadnought and 5 Cruisers)
8 Cruiser groups – (6 Cruisers)
11 frigate groups – (6 Frigates)
Groups BH fleets:
Dreadnought group – (Dreadnought and 7 Cruisers)
5 Cruiser groups – (7 Cruisers)
11 frigate groups – (7 Frigates)
The Admiral of the Volus began organizing the fleet. The problem with the Antaeus system was not the asteroids or any anomalies, but the current position of the planets themselves. Vemal was perfectly opposite Trebin, with the sun in between, and he didn't know the Batarians' starting position. To get to Trebin you will need to first make an FTL jump to one of the planets or the sun, recharge the FTL, and make another jump. Additionally, as the Hanar-Salarian clash showed, FTL Rush was quite an effective strategy, especially with Batarian ships specialized for close-range combat. It's best to start slowly and send one group of frigates to each of the 4 remaining planets, and the sun for reconnaissance. He separated the remaining 6 groups of frigates and created an FTL network that would stop the arrival of any Batarian ships in the kill fields of the cruisers. He also sent half of the Bombers and Fighters to further suppress the approaching ships. After all, destroying the enemy fleet is also an option to victory.
The Admiral of the Batarian had a very simple and effective strategy. Instead of FTL Rushing the Volus at the beginning like the Hanars did to the Salarians, he will send a group of frigates to each planet and sun. Once they find which way the Volus are going, he will then perform an FTL Rush, pinning them between the dead/gas planet and his fleet, allowing them to be easily wiped out. He won't screw things up like his Humans predecessor.
A few minutes later, the Volus Admiral received information that all of his groups had detected Batarian forces. One group of frigates each and they try not to engage. A wise bump, since the Batarian Frigates were better against their counterparts than the Volus, which were more intended to support cruisers than independent actions.
The implications of this arrangement were obvious. The Batarians also wanted information on his location and apparently planned to stay behind. The first move was his. Apparently, the new Admiral Batarian is more of a reactive type than an active one. In fact, the Batarians were the only ones to replace the admiral after round one.
But now it's time to get back to the battle plan. He first recalled his fighters and bombers, then regrouped his fleet and began to consider his options.
Hunidor and Ageko are just rocks. They don't give any advantage to the defender and they will have to defend. The Volus Admiral was sure of it. The Batarians wouldn't just let them approach Trebin itself. Edmos is being terraformed, so a bunch of fire will be banned. If they choose him as a kind of shield, there will be political problems. The sun of the system is also a bad idea. Too big a risk for War Games.
Ploba remains. The largest planet in the system and a Gas Giant, so in theory he would be able to retreat there, but it would jam the sensors, almost forcing close combat, which gave the Batarians an advantage. Although he still had options to turn them away from it.
It'll be a close call, but maybe he can turn Plob from a batarian target into a trap.
Batarian Admiral was extremely patient and ready to deploy his semi-apparatus, preparing the fleet to FTL jump at the first sign of finding the Volus convoy.
His patience paid off because he found them when his group of frigates detected him in orbit of Ploba. Compared to the other planets, this was actually the best option for them, but also quite predictable. Personally, he would choose the sun and start orbiting it from the opposite side to his detected group of frigates. Of course, he was positioned in such a way that if the Volus came from this angle, they would fall right into the jaws of his fleet ready to intercept. He even had his fighters deployed and ready to attack any Volus bomber that appeared.
But now he had to spend a few minutes collecting fighters and reorganizing. And the Admiral himself had to reluctantly admit that the organization of his fleet was rather poor. Damn, Turians could do it in half the time. At least he will recover by destroying the transports. This time only as an exercise, but he has gained real experience in this field over the last few years, so it should go smoothly. That doesn't mean he didn't have any contingency plans.
As soon as the Volus Admiral arrived, he sent a group of cruisers to eliminate the enemy frigates, which quickly began to retreat before the attack. Seeing this, the commander of the cruiser group abandoned the pursuit and returned to the convoy.
At the same time, the Volus Admiral ordered all ships to reorganize in new positions. He assigned his frigates with mines instead of missiles to begin laying a minefield in the gas giant's field, just behind the transport fleet. At the same time, he assigned 6 groups of cruisers to artillery positions, intended to harass any Batarian ships that appeared with their long-range guns and fighters and bombers. At the same time, his dreadnought group, 2 cruiser groups, and 7 frigate groups will move around the planet to safely evacuate the battlefield transports while they recharge their FTL drives.
His frigates finished laying mines, his cruisers positioned themselves, and the convoy moved into formation with his Warhawk-class dreadnoughts, 17 Condor-class cruisers, and 42 Accipiter-class frigates ready for combat.
As soon as the Batarian fleet appeared over the gas giant, they were immediately greeted by fire from 36 Condor-class cruisers. The Volus version was a little better than the Turian variant because although both ships were made by the same company, the Turian obligations towards Citadel were larger and required many more ships, not to mention their gigantic reserve armada.
Despite this, the Batarian Admiral had foreseen immediate fire as one of the Volus' potential tactics, after all, they are a Turian vassal state, so his fleet was in formation and despite the loss of 5 frigates, his cruisers were safe.
He then saw the Volus convoy on the scanners. They can try to hide in the gas giant, but it simply won't be enough to hide that many ships.
Of course, he had seen how the Volus had exploited the minefield in the first round and he had no intention of falling into it again. Instead, another destroyed frigate reminded him of a very promising target.
After all, 36 Condor-class Cruisers could not hope to oppose 35 Yu'Garr-class frigates, 42 Kes'heel-class cruisers and his Eeluram-class dreadnought. He immediately ordered the entire group to move as one and charge the Volus group.
Unfortunately for the Volus, they did not have the Turian discipline, so instead of staying together and continuing to fire in a coordinated manner, specifically targeting the Dreadnought to at least weaken the chain of command, they began firing almost indiscriminately to destroy the ships closest to them.
Admiral Batarian was right. The Volus were panicking! This went very wrong. But they still had a chance to at least survive, and the cruiser group commander immediately recognized this.
His Condor-class, although not as fast as their Turian counterparts due to their larger amounts of sensitive equipment, could still easily outrun Batarian cruisers. But their frigates could easily catch up with them, and the presence of a fleet of ships close to the engines constantly firing at them and without the possibility of counterattack... This is the worst scenario a naval commander can imagine.
Therefore, he had to quickly reduce the enemy frigates. He sent all fighters and bombers to damage the frigates and ordered all ships to focus on them.
But it wasn't enough. The enemy cruisers fired back with everything they had, fighters started engaging his ships, and the damn Dreadnought had already destroyed the first cruiser. Concentrated fire from other ships significantly weakened the other ships' kinetic barriers.
But his plan paid off and the enemy lost another 8 frigates, although his fighters and bombers were severely trimmed.
The Batarian Admiral saw the losses of his frigates and the damage he had inflicted on the Volus, then ordered them to retreat, and relayed orders to groups of frigates around the other planets and sun of the system.
The frigates of his group, of which only half remained, were to move in the opposite direction to the movement of the Volus convoy and intercept them in the atmosphere of the gas giant. This will allow them to be able to hold them in place just by the fact that they have a large number of broadside guns.
At this time, he began the systematic destruction of the Volus cruisers, which had begun to retreat. They had already annihilated 3 Volus cruisers, but he had never lost sight of his true prize. But for now, he'll settle for these remnants.
As he thought about this, he sent 300 fighters with frigates to make the fight even more difficult for the Volus.
The Volus Admiral looked worried and slightly pleased. Although his plan did not involve sacrificing the cruisers, the fact that the Batarians focused on them gave him the necessary time to recharge the FTL drive and circle the planet. He has already sent fighters from his cruisers to begin reconnaissance. Unfortunately, due to the size of the fighters, they had to stick to the upper atmosphere of the gas giant. Only the Elcor had fighters durable enough to delve deeper.
Returning to the battle plan, since the Batarians had sent most of their firepower after his cruisers, which escaped despite heavy losses, it meant that he would have to contend with, at worst, minimal defense from his frigates.
Or at least that's what he thought for half an hour until his fighter patrol ran into a group of 25 Batarian frigates with an export of 300 fighters. His current strength should be enough to deal with them, but it was still a risk.
If he dives deeper into the gas giant, he will be able to destroy the frigates first and then the fighters, but without first gathering his own fighters, they will be annihilated. And there remains the Batarian advantage at short distances. True, his GARDIAN system could be used for inter-ship combat at the ranges they will be at, but even in the best cases it takes concentrated fire to penetrate the armor, especially since the Batarians have one of the thicker ones, or to target advanced elements. Both were very difficult to navigate in the gas giant's atmosphere. And he can't use his almost-charged FTL to reach his destination.
However, leaving the gas giant eliminates most of these problems, except for the fighter advantage in favor of the Batarians, so the Volus admiral chose the obvious option.
Shortly after leaving, he saw Batarian frigates charging under his guns, so he began maneuvers to counter this. At the same time, he ordered his fighters to remain with his frigates so that they could use their GARDIAN systems. The plan worked, but his FTL had already been charged. The Batarian cruiser fleet would also have it charged up soon, so he had to quickly get rid of those Batarian fighters that were blocking his access to FTL.
Or at least he thought so, because the transports that he was protecting were not affected due to their small distance from the main combat zone, as well as 2 groups of frigates. He ordered them to immediately FTL jump to the target and win this War Games for the Volus.
Seconds later, he received notifications from frigate groups on other planets that the remaining Batarian frigates were returning to Trebin.
The commander of one of the Batarian frigate groups couldn't believe his luck. Over 100 transports, guarded by barely a dozen frigates, were at his fingertips, and he took advantage of it. Even the arrival of groups of Volus in pursuit changed nothing. They were already inside and destroying the transports one by one. A few minutes later, they destroyed all 100 transports.
Result:
Batarian Hegemony Victory:
Other units:
BH: 1 dreadnought 36 cruisers, 48 frigates, 89 support crafts
VP: 1 dreadnought, 38 cruisers, 43 frigates, 103 support crafts, 0 transports
=CNN studio=
"The first match of a long round and a spectacular victory for the Batarians." - said Seyifma Besava - "It's a bit strange to say this after such a humiliating defeat in the first round, but what can you do? With me in the studio is the Admiral of the Hanar, who did not want to give his name, but he was the one who commanded the Hanar fleet in their last victory."
"This one greets viewers." - said Admiral Hanarów.
"I'll be honest, how did you come up with this immediate attack plan and why would you take such risks?"
"After a meeting, the command staff concluded that once the Salarians had a chance to use their stealth devices, the Hanar fleet would lose. Therefore, it was decided to attack them before they had a chance to fight. The plan worked, although this one is puzzled as to why Hanars received 3 points."
"It was probably due to the much closer clashes between the Asar and the Salarians, and the Volus and Elcor."
"This one will accept that logic."
"So what does the Admiral think of the Batarians in today's fight."
"This one must recognize the superiority of the Batarians in plundering the transports and condemn the Volus for making a basic mistake."
"An error?"
"This one noticed that the Volus attacked in full force too early and repeated many of the tactics almost to the letter as they had done against the Elcor. Meanwhile, the Batarians were much more innovative in their approach, if only to make the citizens of the Citadel forget about their earlier defeat against System Alliance. This one believes that if current trends continue, the System Alliance will overtake the Batarians as the galaxy's 4th military power within the next decade, perhaps even achieving 2nd place in the next century.
"I see. What would you do if you were the Volus?"
"After analyzing the situation, he decides that a better tactic would be to split forces, slowly strengthening several fronts at the same time. Taking over the center will give a strategic advantage and the Batarians will have to either retreat or also expand their own forces. He would then start planning according to the progress of the fighting."
"Do you think you could win with this tactic?"
"He doesn't think so. Batarian ships are generally larger than Hanar ships, especially in the cruiser-size range. This advantage may be crucial to victory for the Batarians, whose new admiral seems much more competent than his predecessor."
"I understand. Time's up. See you on the next edition of CNN."