Post by KamiSama on Sept 17, 2023 7:08:55 GMT
Royal Federation War Room, Commande de Chateau, Federation Space
The day was going in a typical manner since the Federation had joined the war. Aid requests would come, a detachment was formed and dispatched, repeat. Over several dozen minor battles were successful with aid from the Federation and they were only able to do this due to the extensive command structure set up for their military as well as its powerful logistical capacity. Which was now about to come under threat. Klaxons sounded as the War Room went silent and the central displayed the impossible; Invasion.
Diabella was the first to say something in a dumbstruck room.
"Status, Position, Numbers, ETA!" She shouted.
"Turn off the Klaxons!" She added.
"Status: Warping, Position: Outer Colonies, Numbers: Best estimate at ten thousand plus, ETA: hours at best guess."
"Recall detachments, ready all ships theatre wide and issue Defence Condition One. I want everything we have here and ready to fight. Alert SAGA command of the situation." Diabella ordered.
The room picked up in noise as everyone started getting to work, across the width and breadth of the Federation the shockwaves of this invasion were felt already. Fleets stationed at the other 'Mondes de guerre' in the Federation began making preparations to join the battle, but some would join well after it started. Fortresse Levis and Honfleur fleets would arrive first. Noveau Lyon and Strabourg II would arrive later and a single fleet from the North Zakar would follow suit. The second North Zakar Fleet would stay on high alert for local activity.
Diabella focused on how she would defend the system, it was going to be difficult to defend, four worlds were settled and all served as cogs in the machines that made the system so important. Forger served as the main mining and refining point in the system, sending processed materials to Commande de Chateau. Baril was a logistical centre with extensive stores and shipping facilities as well as dual orbit with one of the system gates. Exterieur would have to be abandoned perhaps or-
She was cut off by a laugh with great gusto. The lights flickered with anticipation as the display in the centre was hijacked. Appearing before the War Room was a monstrous figure clad in armour and a great shield; The AI Paladin tasked with home defence and the longest serving AI in Federation history.
"My protocols have been activated and my slumber has ceased, all defences are transferred to my control. Milady, I stand ready to rout the interlopers." The Paladin said excited.
"Paladin, long time no see. It'll be a privilege to work with you again." Diabella replied kindly. The War Room staff gave each a few looks of confusion.
"Your insight Paladin, what do you think is the best course?" She asked the figure. The Paladin laughed.
"My data centres burn with excitement at the prospect to fight, but I need the enemy in one spot for maximum effectiveness of Electronic Warfare. Ride out and meet them in high orbit." Paladin said striking a fighting pose.
"Very well, there's too many of them and not enough of us, we need to play to our strengths. Order the fleets to point B seven T five." Diabella ordered.
"What about the other planets in system?" Someone asked.
"If we defend everything, we defend nothing. They'll pick us off with ease and we'll be left with nothing. Decisive battle is our best bet." Diabella replied looking towards the operator alerting SAGA. The operator gave her a knowing look and shook his head.
"Besides it seems like there will be no help coming this time." She remarked saddened.
"Leonello, see to the ground war. I leave it to you to hold the orbital forts." Diabella said making for the exit.
"I'm taking personal command of the battle from the Rhongomyniad. This battle is priority nothing else matters unless Adalouse is assaulted."
Commande System: Royal Federation Space
Hager was on the verge of chewing out one of the bridge crew for the tapping sound until he realised it was the motion of his own leg.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, passing it off as a moment of boredom. As the Admiral of the 1st Compact Combined Fleet he couldn’t show anxiety or weakness, not at the stage they were. Truth be told, Admiral Hager of the Republic of Angsun was more anxious now than he ever had been, even beyond his own wedding night. This day had been anticipated for almost two decades and by countless individuals before him. Finally, after all this time, the Bulo Compact was dealing with the problem on their doorstep, the Royal Federation.
His contingent of forces numbered around 4000 ships, the same amount as the other two contingents commanded by Admirals from the Republic of Desalasa and the Federation of Tanila respectively, and yet he had been given overall jurisdiction of the operation. It had been jointly planned, carefully orchestrated and meticulously combed for detail over the last two years by intelligence operations and strategic planners from all of the Bulo nations. Everything came down to this moment, the running skirmishes, the political back and forth and the constant shadow of war. It all came down to this hammerblow strike. The Compact had watched what the Federation had done to the Zentharans and to the ACR, it would not allow itself to be caught off guard and have its main force struck by the Federation super weapon.
With Hager came the combined forces of Angsun itself followed by battlegroups gathered from the Associated States of Abidilo, Republic of Veteria, Illustrious and Magnanimous Republic of The Winchesix and of course Krul’s Khanate, the last of which made up a great deal of his individual contingent. It was an ad hoc formation and gathering and while Hager had fought alongside Abidilo before and considered reliable allies the others were somewhat jumpy. It was why he had been given command of the more troubled elements of the Compacts force. The Khanate were raring for the fight, Hager had absolutely no doubts about their capabilities just doubts about whether he could reel them in and keep them under his orders. Veteria he had more personal issues with, mainly due to the ideological disagreements between them and other Compact members, he had never seen them fight for real, only in wargames and manuvers, he just hoped they were the proper deal. And as for the Winchesix… Their entire obsession with drugs and castes made him almost grimace when he looked upon their ornately displayed breathing apparatus, they were only out for themselves and that was abundantly clear in all things. No doubt if this operation went sideways, they would be the first to flee.
Still the other contingents were also mixed bag affairs, he only hoped the other Admirals had an easier time than him.
“Commande entry in 45 seconds”
The call made him clench his hands.
“Orders stand. We strike the nearest FTL gates and deny reinforcements, destroy all orbital facilities and defences around Exterieur then assist in bringing the Federation fleet to battle directly alongside our allies. I have received word we have ICA allies on this fight but we don’t know if the Federation has received aid. Report readiness” Hager had all of the relevant commanders on the line of his battlegroup.
“Associated States Fleet Alba Confirms orders and readiness” The voice and image of Admiral Riuga comforting Hager.
“Republic Fleet group is fully ready for engagement we have all orders received” The huge female admiral Efolyup boomed across the link.
“Khanate Fleet group Strikeheart stands ready. We read you Admiral Hager our fire will finally incinerate these SAGA scum” Battlemaster Tarceea banged his fist against his chestplate as a sign of respect and salute.
“Our illustrious armada is at the ready, your orders are indeed received” The pompous somewhat artificial tone of Conductor Qazobo finally came through the line, the sound of his heavy raspy breathing making Hager twitch.
“Good. Entry in 10. Fair winds members of the Compact”
“Other Contingents report ready”
“Then let’s get this done”
The FTL shock from the massive Bulo fleets lit up every scanner in the Invilis Corridor as main drives ignited. Hager instantly took stock of the system.
“Commence attack, all elements of the 1st CCF begin operation”
Almost immediately attack craft were launched across the fleet as interdiction was raised, however a series of heavy doors retracted across the Veterian fleet quickly launching a series of massive super torpedoes which ignited their drives and spread out to lock onto the nearest FTL gate and other orbital elements over Exterieur.
The southern front had gone hot.
Commande
The rumble of the ship could put a man to sleep, were it not for circumstance.
Admiral Othen knew this as fact. He had men who took advantage of it, he'd fallen asleep at the desk himself as an ensign long ago. Even now, a part of him wished to be back in those days, where he didn't have to worry so much about championing the nation's military. But the sight of what felt like most of the Desalasan Diaspora on all sides was a potent reminder of where and who he was, and what they were here for. In the distance, he could see the other groups glinting like starlight, will'o'wisps from far away numbering in the thousands. It was a sight inspiring and terrifying, something to bring anxiety in even the most unflappable of his men.
Years they'd spent planning for this. Years they had fretted over the tiniest details, enjoyed the constant meetings, the endless political games and fillibusters. The culmination of two-point-five years, three-point-six months of orchestration had led up to him sitting in a chair, aboard the bridge of the flagship of the Delasalan Diaspora, about two minutes away from jumping into the information capital of the Royal Federation. A deep breath and renewal of focus was applied liberally, lest he become imbibed with the heat of the moment.
His forces were numbered at a flat 4000, same as everyone else. There was an asterisk to be had at the notion; they were supplanted in half by a strike force from the ICA, due to his contingent's forces coming from more lacking militaries. He knew the others well-battlegroups from Neraguese, the Sanidians, Wesa-Masini, Kitunhelm. It was a somewhat ad-hoc affair, though that could be said of the others. The Neraguese he could trust, they prided themselves on dependability and their ships were practically mandated to be top of the line. The Sanidians he knew personally to be inflexible and pushy, but they would follow orders if it meant skinning themselves alive from the exoskeleton up. Wesa-Masini, he'd never seen them in combat, same with Kitunhelm. He'd have to trust that they were what the wargames advertised-though atleast the latter was enthusiastic about it. The ICA forces were the wildcard, and the ones he secretly saved the doubt for. They were as eclectic as everyone else on their own, practically their own battlegroup. He knew they'd seen combat, and the reports weren't pretty-a losing two-on-one against the other most influential force in the Corridor and those glorified warbands to the northwest. They were vouched for, though, and from what he knew this was be their proving ground. Do well, and we'll have a fine relationship, and all that.
"Sir? Jump drives're ready. We're jumping in 45." The voice of the call shook him from thought, and the reflex to flinch was barely suppressed.
"Orders stand. Our target is the Command de Chateau. We hit their data centers while the others keep the Grand Navy at bay. Cripple the horse's legs." He took a conn in his hands, the touch activating it like a magical lamp. "ALCON, report readiness."
"NGVN Gruppe 1 stands ready." The stoic visage of Admiral Vathador eased his tension.
"Sanidian fleet group reports readiness. Awaiting the call." chittered Admiral Exthes, causing his ears to twitch.
"Both fleet groups report ready. We're ready when you are." noted Admiral Danaan, tipping his hat. He was told it was a good luck tradition.
"Kitunhelm group is full-bore. We are ready and waiting." boasted Admiral Kvorden, the bass notable even through a tinny holoscreen.
"All ICA elements report ready. We're with you." came the final call from Admiral De'lan, to which he nodded.
"Clear and ready. Shocking in 10. Fair winds."
A wave of his hand sent the ready signal to Admiral Hager's fleet, and 10 seconds later they departed into the void, leaving behind a shockwave that glittered in the eternal night. (edited)
-
Battlegroup 2 came in with fervor, immediately disgorging swarms of flies as interdiction was raised. They began the full burn towards the Command, as the precourse from the Veterians began to eke their way towards the FTL gates that languished in the distant black sea. They could offer no such appetizers, for they were the main course-the mothball began moving at an arc, with the endpoint aimed square at the Chateau.
Admiral Vino was poised and ready for action as he sat within his office. For, aboard his Tanilan flagship there was no bridge. Every station was segregated into its own respective compartment; interconnected through screens, it was microcosmic of the broader structure of the Tanilan battleforce. Centered around communication between all forces rather than autonomy for individual ships, the Admiral’s office was not the personal bridge for just his ship, but essentially for the entire Tanilan navy present.
Here, in the office, the bustle, orders and hectic management of the rest of the ship was isolated; shut out by a compartmental design that adjusted the office to cushion vibrations and noise to the best of its ability. The idea was to cut the Admiral off from distractions to the best of his ability to allow for the greatest focus on the tactical situation to the best of his ability. All communications were to come in through transmissions, messages sent by officers that were in turn pacified by a text-to-speech AI that ensured all information was delivered concisely, and with calm precision.
Vino’s forces represented the final spear of the Bulo battlegroup: An expedition that had taken years of quiet organization and planning to come into fruition. But no one was surprised at its conception, nor its target. The Royal Federation had been toying with the balance of power in the region for decades. First colonizing its immediate environs, then destroying its Colonial rivals, the only column towards supreme Royalist dominance in the region now fell to the native polities, and there were none stronger than the accumulated force of the Compact.
The Bulo alliance existed for this sole purpose: To break Royalist power and end their hegemony once and for all. Vino knew, he could feel, the weight on his shoulders. His forces depended on him, his homeland depended on him, and the galaxy now depended on him. This battle could shape the fate of the world.
Despite the pressure, Vino was quite disappointed. It had been Angsun that was delegated with the task of leading the assault and directing all strategic command. To Vino, his flagship, the de-facto flagship of the alliance itself and a vessel Vino had full confidence in, had been delegated to second place beside the lead of an ‘Admiral Hager’ and his vessel. Still, he couldn’t help but admit that the choice was ripe. Hager was the best choice for experience, he understood and knew space battles with a keen eye; Vino had risen to his position through logistician work and international politics. He was a seasoned communicator, but he was as fresh as a baby to a struggle of this scale.
Deeply inhaling, then exhaling, the Admiral waited.
[Navigation. Arriving at Chateau. ETA: 45 Seconds.] Arrived the calm notification.
Vino’s forces were accompanied by a coalition of their own. Following in tow were the Tangasine forces, a veritable smorgasbord of ship classes of all different shapes and sizes; there were 11 classes of destroyer alone within their gaggle of federated national naval forces. Their officers had a seasoned history of fighting amongst themselves before they had reached detente some long ago, but the prestige and experience of their officer corps had stuck. What repute they made with their leadership, they wavered with their division and insular communications among their national cliques. Vino knew he would need to be watchful of disorganization amongst them.
Also accompanying them was New Angsun: A previous colony of Angsun (Itself a colony of Tanila), New Angsun were providing what forces their rural economy could afford to do so. New Angsun contributed a few dozen vessels, most of second-hand, foreign origin, purchased from Tanila, Angsun and even some Zetyan cells. They were appreciated nonetheless.
Finally, with the naval core came the Angfarians. A colony-state of the Deruid race, Angfar had brought a respectable force in the hundreds containing even a few home-made designs. The Angfarians were not an experienced naval force and Vilo trusted them to defer to his planning and coordination, but he equally worried for their capacity to act with initiative or confidence if things were to break down into disorganization.
This core force numbered approximately 2,800 ships, with the vast majority being part of the expansive Tanilan navy; the largest numerical force within the compact. However, this coalition came with satellites.
Totaling 400 ships came the Deruid Free Republic. A state dedicated to the ethnonationalism of the Deruid people, the FRD had joined the Bulo Compact out of a distanced cooperativism with their neighbours that had flourished into an arms-length friendship. Nonetheless, the FRD were averse to playing subordinate to foreign governments and had consequently been sub-branched to autonomous duties. Their orders were to maintain their distance and to stifle any reinforcements that might arrive from wherever and, should things become desperate, provide a reserve force where necessary. Their forces were quick and small, but limited the capacity to hold their own in any drawn-out exchange of fire and defences.
Similarly, a force of 800 were arriving behind the primary Tanilan force. This expedition belonged to the Deruids from Anya. An elder-state amongst the Compact, the Anyans brought with them their own ship designs, their own technology, their own electronic combat units and their renowned array of intel-gathering equipment. For the most part, the Anyans were relegated to the task of hanging back at a safer range from the battle proper. Their task was to provide a screen to the Combined Expeditionary Group: An extensive collection of smaller crafts carrying specially trained landing forces, special forces, armour and naval deployments and more for Compact prospects to engage in planetary assaults upon the system if a window were to open. The Anyans and their advanced navy were tasked with screening this expedition from any preemptive attacks by the Federation defence and, in the event of an assault, covering the force’s approach to any assigned targets.
As FTL signatures of Battlegroup 1 and 2 both flared across the board, Vino and Battlegroup 3 arrived from the opposite direction. Seemingly popping into existence in the droves on the brink of stellar range and immediately winding up their interdiction cores, Battlegroup 3 made their advance towards the first target: Baril and its neighboring gate.
“Components report in.” Vino commanded.
[Arch-Admiral Karesh of the Tangasine, ready and proceeding with commands.] Chimed the harmonised computer with the appearance of the lithe Tangasine officer’s avatar, beside him arrived those of the others.
[Admiral of the Fleet Hager-Daan reporting ready and proceeding.] Joined the unemotive voice, accompanied by the visage of a young, humbly-uniformed Tanilan.
[Admiral Danatesakalahiti here, Angfar stands beside you, Admiral, come what may.] Buzzed through the dutiful, well-groomed visage of an Angfarian career officer.
Shortly after pings from the autonomous blocs came through to confirm their arrivals.
[Admiral Sebalfarescani confirming FRD operations have begun. Your word better be worth the trust we’re putting in it, Admiral.] The computer voiced from the Free Republic’s commander, despite it’s neutralised tone, Vino could feel the doubt and lack of confidence oozing from the FRD’s skirmishers.
[Admiral Tagvah calling to Vino. The Combined Expeditionary Group is on-location, the galaxy holds it breath, Admiral.] Vino knew Tagvah, and he knew he was right, but he would’ve preferred to be without the extra mental baggage right now.
“Vino to all sections, you know your orders, god-speed.” With that he concluded the outgoing transmission and turned to his battlegroup comms, “Intelligence report.”
The 3rd Compact Combined Force began its rapid approach upon Baril. Almost immediately the Bulo cruisers of the 3rd Battlegroup unleashed their first barrage of the day. Missile after long-range missile were locked and fired upon Baril’s nearby FTL gate. The plumes of hundreds upon hundreds of rockets zipped forth in a torrent of streams upon their target.
Once that source of entry was eliminated, the FRD harassment force would be able to redirect upon the remaining FTL gates around the system and Vino would be able to join up with Othen’s vanguard and lock the Royal Federation Fleet in from multiple directions. Intel’s buzz came through.
[Intelligence. Royalist naval forces are concentrating around Commande de Chateau. No interstellar forces situated around Baril nor Forger, they are condensing their assets into a larger battleforce.]
“Good. We will ensure the inaction of the gate and begin our rendezvous with Battlegroup 2. Tagvah will prioritize and command the assault of Baril, then Forger, should this become a long-haul we need their infrastructure razed and our troops on the ground. Get his boys to get me intel on the PDF’s for both of them, too.”
Vino reclined into his chair as he squinted at the readouts. They had left themselves defenceless to his contingent, but he knew he needed to race to support the central fight as soon as he could, they could not afford to be divided and picked off individually.
"Confirmed enemy contact twelve thousand plus in three distinct battle groups."
"Fortresse Levis Primary Gate is down, Secondary has gone dark."
"Exteriur reports engagement of orbital defences, Total collapse in sixty minutes."
"Incoming directly towards us eight thousand plus"
Diabella sighed at the sight of the opposing enemy force, She only had to beat four thousand ships three times, she tried to rationalise. She took a moment before realising the command crew of the Rhongomyniad were looking to her for orders.
"Tell Exteriur ground commanders to hold the orbital fortresses and deny the enemy landing. Status of the reinforcements?" Diabella asked.
"Honfleur is coming through now, Fort Levis is delayed due to gate destruction they are spooling up warp drives now."
"Have the Honfleur forces join us at Commande, we'll hold the line here." Diabella said.
Suddenly on the holographic display the Paladin appeared, his previous happy demeanour was shadowed by a sense of fear.
"I wasn't expecting them to hit this hard, I can't do much else for Exteriur if you have anything to evacuate from there you have about fifty minutes before the enemy has full orbital superiority. The sheer numbers is what is killing me." The Paladin lamented.
"Save your woes Paladin, We'll get through this. Soon the entirety of the Grand Navy will be here and nothing will stand against us." Diabella said rousingly, to discourage the negative impact of the Paladins words on the crew.
"Milady, I'm receiving a communication from Merveilleuse, requesting orders." One of the operators exclaimed.
"Order them to stand down, they are not to unleash the genie. Make sure they understand that entirely." Diabella's tone suddenly turned vicious at the mention of Merveilleuse.
The Operator taken aback by Diabella's response acknowledged the order and passed it on.
As the Forces of the Compact approached the Federation, they began warming weapons and readying defensive measures. for the brutal slog fest that was about to commence, from the Honfleur gate arrives a fresh fleet of Federation ships from Fleet group Ganymede began taking a wider approach to join the Forces already stationed at Commande.
Commande System: Royal Federation Space
The gate had spectacularly detonated along with the handful of orbital stations which had accompanied it, Hager had not taken his eyes off the tactical read out since they had arrived, watching Admiral Vino and Admiral Othen’s contingents respectively carry out their objectives. With the closest gate destroyed it would have no doubt delayed reinforcements to the enemy, but now they had to secure and pacify Exterieur to ensure it didn’t launch any surface to space strikes or make unexpected plans.
“All forces engage orbital facilities, cripple civilian dockyards but destroy military installations. I want precision orbital bombardment on identified surface to orbit weaponry, airfields and military bases, remember to keep the bombardment tight we do not want any civilian casualties. I will not sully our illustrious alliance with such crimes”
Hagers orders were acknowledged as the taskforce moved in towards the planet, making Hager take his eyes off the data reads and towards the main viewscreen for the first time.
The giant marble before him showed many different hues, being a temperate world it appeared to have oceans, deserts, jungles and large expanses of ice near the poles. Such a shame they had squandered such a beautiful world for military usage only, just one of the things the colonials took the granted in this galaxy.
Alerts popped up indicating ship losses, already his fleet was firing on the main orbital fortress located close to the space elevator which was designated a key capture zone. Vessels exploded as they went back and forth but already tactical analysis was identifying the bombardment targets. Three large fortress complexes containing surface to space weapons, airfields and vehicle depots were the main threats, located unfortunately close to the three planetary population centers. Other smaller military bases were identified but the risk of collateral was not present there at least.
As the firefight with the orbital fortress continued the Khanate division of the fleet along with Winchesix swung into a holding pattern, inlaying bombardment targets they fired in unison. All across the planet fiery streaks flew through blue skies as projectiles and nuclear munitions impacted military bases, rocking them with devastating explosions. Hager twitched however as he saw nuclear munitions used to target the larger orbital fortresses, shockwaves already pummelling the civilian quarters of the cities.
“This is Admiral Hager, cease nuclear bombardment near civilian population centres, your causing unneeded collateral damage” This was precisely what Hager was worried about with the Khanate, however he was surprised to see them acknowledge and cease. To their credit, they had been as accurate as possible, but the shockwaves would bound to have devastated non-combat regions. He supposed that is what happens when you build military centres adjacent to civilians.
“All vessels render surface weapons inoperable, then begin pacification. Strike teams I want control of the elevator and rubble of the bases. Remember, get in, get out, this is not an occupation or full-on invasion”
Pre-planned strike forces detached from the fleet, commencing orbital drops onto the bombarded bases and across the length of the orbital elevator. They were not heavy forces, only meant to seize and mop up remaining elements. The Bulo did not have the time or forces to conduct full scale ground invasions, at least not on this planet.
COMMAND DE CHATEAU
The ambient rumble hemmed and hawed, variance in engine output tumbling through the ship like waves in a pond. Othen's gaze was immersed in a VR tacticiascape, a large headset visor locked down onto his head the instant they had shocked into the Chateau and keeping him imprisoned in a world of vector lines and status readouts. The ships ringing the Chateau, the ships warping in from Honfleur, the faint warp signals dying out at the Fortresse gates, all things he saw even before his crew could note them for the others. They were at the halfway point now, and it was punctuated by an alarm tone, hushed yet noticeable all the same.
'Attention. Long-range combat imminent. Prepare stations. Prepare stations.' repeated an automated voice, droll and punctual. Seven visages appeared in his peripheral, comms links opened with the other members of his battlegroup and the brothers battlegroup that followed them. Hager and Vino were in focus, as were his compatriots. Othen's gaze drifted to the FTL gates; new Fed arrivals from Honfleur beginning to merge with the present defenders, the detected signals from the gate near Baril getting stronger with every second. Sent to staph the tide. 'Attention. Enemy fleet arrival from Honfleur. Force bolster imminent.' came the voice again, triggered now by his thoughts instead of his crew.
"Vino, we are ETA 2 minutes to ELR combat. Preparing respective weapons, recommend you do the same." he spoke into the visage's link, eyeing a red circle around their forces that edged closer and closer to the Royals with every second. Across his fleet, RKKV buses and casaba howitzer missiles were readied, shunted into launch silos and made ready for full burn. 1 minute. Magnetic and particulate shields were pre-activated and plasma shields primed, multitudes of ships releasing little clouds as hatches opened across the fleet, exposing their charges to vacuum. Othen was there to ensure it, his digital gaze going through every ship as their exteriors changed to suit the need. 30 seconds. The larger ships made an umbrella with the help of the smaller ones, an artillery formation they had drilled for countless times, and their mothballs of spacecraft followed suit as they stuck to their patrons.
0 seconds.
In unison, the fleet opened up, missiles of all sorts rushing outwards from the umbrella in the tens of thousands, turreted weapons across the fleet aiming at prospective targets just teasingly out of range. They arced across the void, aimed at priority targets-carriers, heavy ships, specialty ships and artillery. The mothball did not yet depart, sticking to the safety of point defense ranges, but sooner or later they would act, either out of want or out of need.
9 February 2023
Another monotonous update came through to Vino just as a second missile volley was rocketed off to finish the job on 3rd Battlegroup’s Gate objectives. It was Othen updating him that confrontation between Battlegroup 2 and the main Royalist force was imminent. Reclining into his chair, the Tanilan Admiral exhaled in a brief moment of meditation before simply tapping in a ping confirming the reception of the message before Vino restored his attention to his operations as they progressed.
“All vessels, begin redirection towards the Royalist Fleet. Prime systems and prepare for autonomous command once combat initiates. CEG Escorts begin engagement with Baril’s PDF, do not gamble your landing until all anti-spatial units have been pacified.” The Admiral declared to his array of units appearing almost like a game upon the visual readouts. He watched as the blips spreading outwards and beginning to head towards the Federation Fleet, while the smaller force began to converge on the first of their Federation planetary targets.”
The Anyans, 800 ships strong, were quick to begin their assault on Baril. Their first concern and priority were the orbital PDF forces situated around the haven. First came a transmission by Admiral Tagvah in advance to all identified RF installations:
“Assaulting vessels to Baril defence forces.” The repeatedly focused message bombarded the communiques of the local defence installations, “You are without support and outgunned, demilitarize and accept pacification or you will be destroyed.”
For all sites that failed to announce their acceptance and begin their deactivation, hostility came swiftly after. Anything from small system-based defence ships to orbital platforms were the first targets to be taken down predominantly at range via the CEG’s long-range missile dispatches, which were blasted off sequentially in the thousands from every vessel among the force. The intention was to knock out the outer screen of the planet and limit the PDF to surface-to-space defences, which could be more readily concentrated on as the CEG had closed in more properly.
For the rest of the 3rd Battlegroup, however, Baril was now far behind them. Vino’s course to pincer upon the Federation fleet was, more or less, a bee-line straight towards the epicenter of the Royalist naval armada. This did, however, pass them close to Forger and would give it a period of time in which it could pick away at his forces from the side as he rushed by, if they wished to expend the resources on doing so.
Admiral Sebalfarescani was, however, a lot more worried than his compatriots. Leading his 400 ship force forward, his guerrilla force were under orders to finish off the final two gates in the system. Like Vino, it would take time for him to even come into range of engaging with that objective. It wasn’t the gates that concerned him, however, but rather the unanticipated locationing of Fleet Group Ganymede, which had the potential to intercept his forces if they deemed it important enough to distract themselves with.
“Vino to Othen.” Finally came the 3rd Battlegroup leader’s official remark, “We are en-route to engagement, you will just need to make do without us until we are in range to support. Strength be with you.” The transmission ended.
VMFR Rhongomyniad, Commande Orbit
The paladin let out a sigh.
"Radiological alarms from Exterieur, Anti orbital fortresses are inoperable, they were unable to track the missiles through the debris. Estimating Casualties-" The Paladin said plainly.
"Later, Prepare for incoming fire." Diabella commanded. She didn't want to think about the situation going on there anymore then she had to.
"Baril reports that the gate has been destroyed and defences are overwhelmed." The Paladin said again.
"Reinforcements are delayed at Adalouse, they'll need time to charge FTL."
"The reinforcements from Fortresse Levis are still on route?" Diabella asked.
"Arrival is imminent and will coincide with integration of the Honfleur Fleet." The Paladin replied.
"Then we have a chance." Diabella said.
"Paladin begin counterfire with your defences." Diabella said standing up from her command throne.
"Are target harmonic locked in?" She asked the command deck.
The ship shook violently as the ordinance from the BULO fleet was starting to come through the Defence Net and then a second time this time different.
"Fortresse Levis Fleet group have arrived on our position." The Paladin remarked
"Harmonics locked and shared throughout the fleet Milady." An operator shouted.
"Fire at will! Show these cur the might of the Grand Navy." Diabella commanded.
"Paladin, the time is now. Begin E-war operations." She said more quietly.
"Finally, I can show these base invaders what it means to assault our fortress in the starts."
Now three fleets strong the Federation began returning fire on the advancing enemy. A spectacular lightshow was taking place and unlike the other battles taking place this was far less one sided and for the moment the advantage would lie with the Federation. Missiles screamed across the void by the dozens as Ignum Lances targeted down targets of opportunity, it wasn't long before the trio of Federation Dreadnoughts began the fire their exotic and deadly Higgs Guns. The Paladin meanwhile began work on his E-war campaign. Worms were sent along return signals to invade enemy systems and countermeasures were deployed to confuse and trick the enemy. As he did his work the heat in his data centres only rose to the point where they would be easily distinguished from other space infrastructure.
14 March 2023
The command room rattled subtly, as if an earthquake permeated the hull of the ship. Across the fleet came flashes of light, both from gun and munition as the great exchange began. Alarms rang out across every ship, automated voices drolling from impact warnings to damage controls to simple reminders of duties. Immersed in the command atrium, Othen saw every action, every ship damaged, lost, destroyed. When Vino told him of their delay, and the Federation reinforcements came in, he could only but grimly stay course; by the time they were close enough to come in range of Federation guns, he had accepted the cold truth of the matter as fully as the visor that weighed upon his head-their losses would be heavy, even once Vino and Hager made their rendevous.
4000 ships of the line each performed their own roles as the vacuum was laid bare, the strengths of each nation come to fruition. The Neraguese and Kitunhelm fleets let loose potent artillery, missiles, lasers and long-range cannons that coursed the empty void like fireflies, aimed at targets of interest and dire opportunity. The Sanidans stoically bore the initial brunt, having command of the largest ships of the fleet as plasma and particulate fought against missile and Ignum. The Wesa-Masini fleet focused half on support, half on offense as their guns made chorus with the other ships, and their defensive systems and PD networks ablated what projectiles they could. And his fleet filled in the cracks, dedicated carriers rubbing shoulders with cruisers alike as they continued to unload swarms of voidcraft.
The ICA strike fleet saw fit to surprise Othen, however, as their own support ships engaged offensive EWAR and ECM countermeasures en masse, cones of invisible fire imbibed on the Federation fleets, while a contingent of theirs engaged stealth systems-the Blitzans, the readouts named them-and dived en masse, in the earliest stage of a nascent pincer maneuver. Amongst every fleet, voidcraft squadrons once in mothballs screamed through the void, interspersed between weapons fire and swarming towards the most dangerous game-in particular, the trio of Federation Dreadnoughts belting off their exotic weapons.
He knew it would not be long now before their losses would skyrocket. Already, even in the opening salvos, they had lost not-insignificant amounts of important ships; a Sanidan battleship, two ICA support cruisers, two Neraguese arsenal ships, not counting the damage reports beginning to pile. The urge to flinch was preemptively suppressed when three Higgs Lances ran through their formation, and reports of viral EWAR protocols were beginning to pick up, alongside calls for switching to laserline and tightbeam morse. However, a curio caught his attention, as he ran his eyes across the Federation fleet-thermal signatures, rising in tandem as to be distinguishable even amongst the heat of battle.
"Vino, Hager-our sensors are detecting unusual heat readouts from orbital Fed infrastructure. Likely target of interest-lasing now. Requesting haste in your rendevous, taking losses, fa-" He paused momentarily as the command ship rocked, a far-off explosion blooming through a bridge window he couldn't see. "Fair winds. Over." (edited)
Commande System: Royal Federation Space
Ground forces were reporting surrenders and engagements on the surface of Exteriuer but they now had bigger problems.
The other two forces had engaged the Federations main fleet forces, no matter the BULO numbers they were bound to take heavy losses. The only thing they could do now was move to strike where able.
"I see the target, moving my force to strike infrastructure, abandoning ground operations for now"
Ground forces were quickly recalled across the surface, retreating back to vessels in orbit as the Taskforce Hager commanded lit their drives, a singular target now presenting itself. Commande De Chataeu, its orbital infrastructure displayed phenomenal heat output and while its orbital defences would be heavy Hager knew they needed to strike that foe, especially when their systems started to detect heavy interference and alarms rang out about possible intrusion attempts.
"Cut exterior com connections and switch to ship to ship laserline, any vessel reporting firewall bypasses is to disengage immediately" Already several vessels disengaged, moving away from the battle space as their systems dealt with the cyberwarfare intrusions, infected they were no good in combat.
"Fire long range missile strike, load jam guiding munitions and switch other missiles to laser designation, we rely on Othens guidance"
Across Hagers formation missiles flew out of launchers, some homed in on the jamming sources while others relied on Othens guidance lasing to home in on target, it was at least something to keep the orbital defences busy while they closed the distance.
"I want strike craft to cover us, bombers form up on our right flank, I want you to conduct a single strike on the Royal Federation fleet elements engaging Othen, it is all we can do to help, peel off some of our fighters to escort"
The strike craft wing disengaged from Hagers fleet, a mish mash of the different nations the heavy Khanate bombers made up the core, together they had plenty of anti-capital munitions from AM torpedoes to one shot Tachyon cannons. They aimed to at least assist Othen and do some damage.
20 March 2023
by an on-screen update notifying of their distance, “...We will be entering feasible weapon range imminently but at this distance our support will be limited, you must buy us more time.”
The moment the fleet entered into range the Royalist’s flank, they began to fire whatever they could at such distances, missiles and drones mainly. Many of the older ships held by the multinational fleet were, however, still having their racks reloaded from their stores since their initial onslaughts on the rear worlds of the Federation; the volley was limited and dependent on information that was subject to constant change.
Vino did, however, take the distance to take note of the electronic warfare capabilities employed by the Compact’s enemy. They certainly seemed to work around the use of informational confusion; this was something the Royal Federation had utilized in the past too and Vino had taken note of the Federation’s electronic warfare leaning prior to the operation.
He leant over to his comms,
“Admiral Tagvah, come in.”
The neutral computational warble of the computer responded,
[Admiral Tagvah here. The CEG operations are going as planned.]
“Tagvah, your forces are the most computationally advanced that we have in the compact. I have a feeling we are going to need your capabilities if we’re going to counter their edge in this battle. Can you expedite your mission and join us any quicker?”
[Baril’s defences have been neutralized with minimal resistance here. Forger will be falling soon. Once we’ve escorted their landers planetside we can join you, but our forces will be down on both planets for some time until their scorching of local infrastructure is complete. We would be leaving them undefended.]
Vino waited to think before replying,
“I’ll have Sebalfarescani’s guerrillas turn heels and take over your escort. He should be securing the last gates now. Make haste, Tagvah, you may be central to our effectiveness here.”
[Very well. Piggyback any information your intelligence people collate of their strategem on to me in the meantime, Vino. A bit of homework will do me some good, Tagvah out.]
With that Vino sat back and pinged the new order through to Admiral Sebalfarescani. He watched the first feeds of the sparse and long-ranged 3rd Battlegroup projectiles gliding across the cosmos towards the Royalist’s sides from afar, and as his forces moved closer and closer into effective range on the Federation’s side. (edited)
VMFR Regno, on route to Commande system
It was quiet dimly lit and tense in the CIC of the Regno. High Admiral Lucius De Monarick watched the time update for their arrival. Last minute jump coordinates they received would place them within firing range of one of the BULO Fleets. Under Emergency regulations he had been placed in charge of roughly half of the Federations available warships; Four Fleet groups forming a Sector Armada. He had never commanded such a force before but such a force was unweildy like a hammer to smash through the toughest of stone. The timer ticked down into its final minute, He didn't let the nerves get to him, he couldn't. So much relied on him, he was the reinforcements, the cavalry arriving, there was only him and this force. If they couldn't break the Invaders then the system was lost. He watched it closer now, Five... Four... Three... Two... One.
The Warp bubble burst with an explosion of exotic energy and the Grand Navy of the Federation revealed itself to the BULO in its full glory. They had appeared near forger at the rear of one of the BULO Fleets pressing the flank of Diabellas forces. He made it in time and on position. He shot up from his command throne.
"EXECUTE THE RELIEF PLAN" He ordered.
The Crew in a flurry moved to execute their orders. The Armada was to engage the flanking BULO while a contingent of Destroyers and Frigates supported by Strike craft would move against the elements invading Baril to support ground forces there. The Armada begin moving towards the BULO Flankers and started opening fire with long range weapons, in place of their usual light show of fire the main focus was defence so that the more powerful shorter range weapons could be used more effectively.
VMFR Rhongomyniad, Commande Orbit
There was a cheer in the CIC as the report of the reinforcement fleet came through. It had made the hopeless situation less bleak and it finally gave the Federation a fighting chance. The battle continued to rage around Commande but it didn't seem to be going anywhere. A stalemate that would be broken with the arrival of the BULO fleet around Exterieur even now they sent a vanguard of strike craft to assist their comrades. The Rhongomyniad itself had to withdraw to back of the Federation firing lines after suffering too many direct hits, the rest of the Fleet was rotating itself to keep more intact ships towards the front of the enemy fire. Orbital Defences Platforms and Stations helped offset the damage with better defensive capabilities and firepower but the sheer volume of fire was overwhelming the best defence in the Federation. Automated tugs raced around the chaotic battle stabilising the wrecks of destroyed and disabled ships to prevent their de orbit and caused catastrophic damage on the ground.
"Paladin! E-war update?" Diabella asked.
"They're not as easy I thought they were going to be, some success but not as much as I had hoped even less now." The Paladin said altering the display.
"Missiles have disabled one of my data centres. I have several more in orbit but the loss of each one weakens my ability to fight, Ground based centres lack the space specific apparatus to attack ships." He continued
"Reprioritise the tugs to move the centres into low orbit, keep them covered while they do it." Diabella replied.
"Send the PDF reserve strike groups to intercept the incoming attack wave." She added as the ship shook violently from another impact.
"I want their Triple C ships targeted first. If we can disorganise them we might break this fleet before the next one comes." She ordered.
Commande System: Royal Federation Space
"Sir we have heavy incoming fire, orbital defence batteries and supporting PDF elements are tougher than expected"
"We have no choice but to continue" Hager knew the gravitas of those words, so many more would die because of them. But he was right, the Admiral watched as a wholly new fleet of contacts arrived. More enemy reinforcements, if they could defang Commande before they engaged perhaps, there was a chance they could swing about to meet them and reinforce the line.
Their own long range fire was being met with the Federations own, losses were creeping up with the foe targetting artillery vessels or longer ranged strike platforms. They were being precise.
"Call our longer hitters into tighter formations, cover them with the battleships and keep escorts close to prioritise PD interception. Stagger our volleys, I want wave then wave of shots, overload as much of their own interception as we can"
"Admiral enemy orbital infrastructure is being towed into lower orbits"
"Then ignore it for now, target their defensive installations and PDF elements, make it easier for the Second Strike Group"
---
A bomber exploded as the Angsun interceptor split second dodged a laser bolt aimed for its center mass.
The Federations own attack craft had moved to intercept the relief bomber contingent. The Khanate bombers were tough and took a lot to take down, but without support they were sitting ducks. That was where the Angsun and Winchesix fighters came in. Angsuns own craft were built around being jack of all trades, while the Winchesix interceptors where built for one thing, speed and style. They were inhumanly agile, appearing as if drones but their pilots were very much human enhanced with drugs and more to keep them from dying to the G-forces of piloting.
They met the Federation head on, the Angsun craft keeping with the bombers, providing escort as the bombers own defensive missiles and railguns spat out at the enemy. Winchesix however broke formation instantly, using their speed and agility to try and come around on the flanks of the Federation craft, their pilots calling out over coms their official bond names and declaring challenges to the Federation pilots.
A shock rumbled the ship again, the firing of the spinal battery making the ship groan and shake like clockwork as the battle continued on. Othen now was beginning to worry, as his losses and damage reports piled up like forgotten paperwork. Group Three was being intercepted by reinforcements, Group One was busy with strikecraft interceptions. He knew he could hold, that was his job - how much longer he could hold, that was another matter. Their ships did not rotate as the Feds did, their roles fixed and their positions limited. Already he was losing enough ships to warrant a call 2; Admiral Exthes and the Sanidan were reporting up to 50% total damage accrued, and the other factions were at minimum totalling at 25%, not counting ship losses.
Still, his fleet was never without fangs. Having lased their targets for a prolonged period of time, the artillery ships across his fleet now began to fire missiles at unconventional angles, arcing above, below and to the sides of the battlefield as to strike where the Federation couldn't reach in time. The ICA element that had gone into stealth had reached the apex of their arc, and as Othen could see it was aimed square at the largest group of targets in the enemy fleet. And, as the Federation dedicated their strikecraft to the left of the battlefield, the swarms deployed by his own battlegroup saw a hole to be filled. As his carriers worked overtime to exhaust their capacities, bombers, interceptors and escort fighters alike poured from his ships into a second wave, making a slight pincer to the right of the battlespace as they aimed to take advantage of the mixed assault.
He could only hope, now, that the rest would be able to succour his assault.
"Othen to Hager, Vino. Appreciate all the help we can get, but we need more and fast." He intoned grimly, watching an Ignum lance tear into an ICA frigate. "Adding heavy targets to our lasing systems. Triple, double B's, carriers, they're the heaviest hitters." (edited)
Vino was notified of the Federate reinforcements almost instantaneously. If he wasn’t alerted by his own readouts, he was by the thousand or so updates from the ships of his fleet all informing him of the same obvious development. This wasn’t good.
Already a handful of ships were struck or disabled by the first incoming projectiles before the fleet could begin to more effectively account for the new attack direction.
Despite now being caught in a sandwich, Vino still remained calm. The room helped him to keep a distant attitude to it all. For several moments he stayed idle; thinking in silence as more messages pinged through. Finally he leant forth and opened up his comms to the fleet.
“All units, push forward to our planned target. We’ll close our distance with the Battlegroup 2 and get close and personal with them. Let their reinforcements chase us… Our current course should keep them at a distance, for now.”
The battlegroup refused to be locked down by De Monarick and now instead was barreling at full throttle straight towards Commande de Chateau. They stopped at nothing and, as each weapon type came into range, be it laser, coilgun or plasma, the hodgepodge fleet of a hundred ship types began to unleash their turret fire and fighter clouds alike.
With the arrival of the new Federation fleet, the planned switch between Sebalfarescani’s irregulars and Tagvah’s contingent was obstructed: A Royal Federation fleet now stood between them. Instead, Sebalfarescani now moved to flank and trace De Monarick’s forces from the side and glance them with long-range harassment fire from their side.
Now unable to meet and unify with Vino. Admiral Tagvah and his advanced forces now instead pulled back and moved to intercept the Royal Federation’s relief force headed to Baril. Tagvah was well aware that he was now the only force left in this side of the system and was, effectively, isolated by the Federate arrival forces. His goal was to rush into the enemy forces and engage in a close-range, decisive engagement that could break off the Federation’s approach before additional relief could be brought to the site.
19 April 2023
Commande Orbit
A wave of missiles approached the VMFR Rhongomyniad and as routine as it had become now they were opened up on by supporting ships and the Flagship itself. This time however there was a gap, as damage and losses piled up on the Federation forces defending the planet this gap proved to be devastating. A hand full of missiles struck the ship near its main guns but by luck they damaged the containment field of the insidious higgs particles. The resulting breach let loose a beam the spread from the ships dorsal side to its ventral side. Cutting the monster in two, it began its death spiral towards the planet, flipping end over end. The crew were stuck onboard as any ejected life boats would be caught in the beast path.
Before communications were lost with the Rhongomyniad, Diabella gave one last order to the fleet; "Retreat"
High Admiral Lucius received the order and began pushing the flanking group of BULO harder to distract them enough so that the few defenders left could retreat. What once encompassed nearly half the Federation Navy in the Region was now not even a battle groups strength of battered hulls. They Paladin used the last of the Orbital Defences strength to assist in their evacuation.
Soon the planet would be open to invasion with High Orbit nearly secured low orbit was vulnerable. A vast planetary ring called the "Silver Crown" was the prized Federation shipyards for the region, home to millions and a sizable chunk of the Federation Industrial shipbuilding capacity. What few ships were docked for repairs or refit were hurriedly trying escape their berths. Undermanned, under equipped they would be easy pickings for the BULO forces.
The ship shook violently as its came into contact with the atmosphere of the planet, Diabella held tightly onto her command throne. The harness keeping her upright as the planets gravity took over from the ship artificial gravity.
"Hull temperature increasing."
"Trajectory calculations complete we'll crash somewhere in the Aguste's Wilds near one of our fortresses."
Diabella listened to the crew do their jobs professionally despite the circumstances.
"Firing all thrusters... now" Argo sythetic voice said.
With a jolt the ship stop spinning manically and seemed to level out. Argo then began counting down the time to impact.
Fort Federasia, Commande surface
Lord General Leonello could only watch on the sensor feed the descent of the Rhongomyniad, He had served many years on that ship as the head of the army contingent for Diabellas forces in the last three wars. It saddened him to see it go but he was more concerned for his friend. His estimates would have the ship surviving mostly intact but he couldn't leave Diabella to fend for herself. He had already ordered a relief force to intercept the crash site and begin evacuating survivors. He couldn't spend more time watching now, he had a planet to defend. Already more troops were arriving from Adalouse with the planet side FTL gate, trains brought soldiers and equipment in and were taking civilians out, but with only one gate on the planet civilian evacuation was the lowest priority.
Incandescent light filled the room briefly before the windows tinted themselves as the Anti Orbital guns began to fire on the encroaching fleet.
24 April 2023
Commande System: Royal Federation Space
"I read you Othen, recalibrating spinals and long range strikes now. All guns target those heavy units, ignore the orbital positions send two volleys their way then switch back to orbitals. Give those Federation bastards something to think about, we will clip them in the flank"
The whole of Hagers formation seemed to shift, momentarily firing their RCS to orient the fleet side on to their momentum. Main engines cut out as the fleet precisely timed their fire. The first barrage was away the moment they orientated correctly, then there was a pause of nearly 30 seconds as they waited for heavier spinal elements to reload and recharge. The moment all guns showed green they fired a second volley, RCS swung the ships around again to their forward motion and once more main drives lit up across the fleet. Locked back on target they focused the RF Orbital positions, more ships from their force being either forced to disengage or being totally destroyed by the long range volleys.
"Sir, Admiral Vino appears to be moving to our current target and is letting the enemy reinforcements chase him"
"Understood, tell them to hit orbital elements on the other side of the planet and together we can hopefully smash this world and its infrastructure. With any luck it will be a crippling blow. Then we can rendezvous and support one another"
"Sir! The VMFR Rhongomyniad has been destroyed!" The call out brought a cheer across the bridge as Hager smiled. An enemy flagship taken out of action... How very well done.
"Enemy forces appear to be pulling back somewhat"
"So we have some breathing room. Continue hitting orbital infrastructure and do not let those ships fleeing the ring escape unless they are civilian. When we enter near orbit prep forces for orbit to ground precision bombardment"
He didn't want even more hatred as a result from this battle.
As the Federation began to pull back, Othen silently sighed in relief. Though his heart panged for Vino as he watched him make full burn towards the Commande De Chateau, the once-fleet that defended the stronghold had broken and given them the opening they finally needed. Faintly, he heard cheering from the crew outside of his immurement, as the confirmation of the Rhongomyniad's de-orbiting reached their ears. A boost for morale, one sorely needed-but congratulations could come later. Now was the time of action, lest the reinforcements from abroad bring that number ever higher.
He eyed his fleet for a moment, surveying the damage through impersonal holograms before he dared to act. It was grim - 50% damage in total accrued across every fleet. up to 20% in losses. The Sanidans the heaviest hit, their carriers almost depleted in full, and most ships suffering atleast some form of scarring if not major damage. But it was less than it normally would have been otherwise, and for Hager and Vino's efforts he was truly thankful. The visages of his admirals popped up alongside him on his request, expressions made steely with the loss of men and machine.
"Their assault is broken. Shall we proceed with other targets?" now spoke Vathador, the Neraguese ships lasing new targets even in absence of speech. After a moment of chastising himself for his reflections, he spoke again.
"Yes, we have an opening, we need to take it. Target the orbital infrastructure. Silver Crown and data centers are top priority, alongside any immediate targets of interest."
"The ships?" queried Danaan, the ships of Wesa-Masini still disgorging craft.
"We leave them. Tell the ICA ships in the stealth maneuver to target any remaining triple-Bs or ships in drydock, otherwise disregard. We can't waste resources."
"And the outgoings? What of them?" queried Exthes, as the Sanidan ships established readings on the various ships in the 'trains' that began to ebb to and fro the Crown.
"...leave them." He noted after a moment, eyes flitting between the planet and the Crown. "Their efforts are for naught anyways."
"What do we do with the planet after the Crown? Invade, or glass?" now asked Kvorden, whose gaze remained particulate upon the crash site of the Rhongomyniad. It was worthy of pondering, and Othen could find no answer even with a moment's pause.
"...I don't know." He admitted frankly. "I'll request input from the others. Until then, keep your fire controlled and focused."
A series of nods, and then they all blipped away.
His fleet now moved as one, RCS thrusters diverting them sideways towards Hager's fleet, as they and their strikecraft began to focus fire on the Silver Crown, and upon any infrastructure that remained in space. Additionally, the ICA ship squadron that positioned itself to ambush now struck fully, emerging from stealth and rocketing upwards to attack any targets of priority they could find, whether it was the ships that lay in docks, any stragglers that had yet to proceed with the retreat, or simply to aid in the grand attack that had now commenced fleetwide. From Othen's ship to the two other battlegroups came a simple query, yet one that would be key to the climax of this operation.
"Vino, Hager. Your help is much appreciated. My command staff are asking me this-do we invade the Chateau, or do we commence bombardment?"
Even as Lucius pressed forth the assault, Vino tried to continue accelerating upon the throttled forces at Commande with continued volley after volley of weapons fire. It quickly became apparent that this was no longer tenable.
While the update on the neutralization of the enemy’s flagship was a welcome sign, ships were now dropping by the dozen. The battlegroup’s exposed rear was receiving increasingly frequent shots that were beginning to scale up in their rate of puncture through AD bubbles. Hundreds were now either being rendered vulnerable from spent defences or were crippled and left floating in dead space with struck thrusters. Unable to ignore the flank of the flankers any longer, Vino gave the order to turn the formation around. His flank had been stalled.
At once the swarm of vessels began to maneuver left and right; splitting in two like a shoal of fish as they cycled around to meet the High Admiral’s fleet face to face with the full weight of their defences and armaments. It gave the Royal Federation withdrawal breathing room, but Vino’s concern was now to become a blocker to prevent the retreating forces from merging with Lucius. The goal was now to maintain a wall and keep the forces broken in two, and more importantly to now stall the reinforcing units. With no hesitation, Vino’s fleet began to return fire upon Lucius’ forces, who up until now had gone effectively unassailed.
“Vino here.” He emitted an update, “My advance has been curtailed. There’s a risk my battlegroup’ll be broken from behind. I’m holding position.”
The Compactist gripped to his chair with subtle frustration at the precarious position of his forces as he watched the enemy move on either side of him.
VMFR Regno, Commande System
Lucius winced as his flagship was now taking fire from the third group of BULO Forces. They had expertly reversed direction and were now bearing down on his force. The remainder of Diabella's force had managed to escape the battle zone and Forces she was fighting now had orbital control of Commande. He would follow the last order from the Lady Admiral and began to move his fleet back towards Baril to evacuate as many supplies, equipment and weapons as possible before the system was lost to them. The relief force was already engaging the BULO invaders at long range but with their high speed they were closing the gap for a close range assault while Federation Marines prepared to drop on the surface.
In orbit the defenceless Silver Ring took impact after impact from the BULO forces manufactories, housing blocs, ships yards everything was being hit. Tethers to the space elevators snapped and buckled and explosive chain reactions ruptured across the factory districts and explosive decompression blew out districts all over. Automated tugs and repair drones moved to fix the damage only to be destroyed in the destruction, as the last data centre was destroyed in orbit the drones just stopped with no network connection they simply drifted in the direction they were already going. Hundreds of thousands were dying by the minute as the Silver ring began to break apart and begin collapsing towards the planet.
VMFR Rhongomyniad crash site
Diabella watched through the smoky haze as the command centre doors were pried open by the rescue team. She wanted to shout out to them but she couldn't move, everything hurt. The team got closer, there were dozens of them now entering the command centre. One noticed her and immediately ran over to her and started checking her over.
"Vitals are stable, Likely concussion and shock, get the ship down here the Lady leaves first." The voice said behind a respirator.
The rest of the journey was a broken haze as she was transported away. Her thoughts dwelling on her ship, crew and beloved. The teams searched high and low across what remained of the ship and rescued a mere few hundred from the normal thousands strong crew needed to run the behemoth.
Fort Federasia, Commande surface
Leonello watched as the dropship descended down the tunnel to the underground hanger. Diabella was onboard and would be back on Adalouse in no time. In the mean time he had a difficult choice to make. The shy was alight with the destruction of the ring, it was daytime but its fiery death was visible to all. It was long before debris started to rain down on the planet, in the distance he could see one of the space elevator tethers break away and collapse towards the ocean. Untold devastation was unfolding across the planet. Leonello had been quick to order evacuations across the planet but the vast distance between some of the cities and the only mean off world would bottleneck the effort extensively.
Hager watched the Silver Ring buckle from the impacts, before finally breaking and shattering in places.
"So much devastation"
He questioned whether they would even have to bombard the planet, the impacts from the Ring alone would likely wipe out the planets eco system and kill untold numbers from the immediate and long term effects.
"This is Hager to Vino and Othen. I believe we let the planet evacuate, the destruction of the ring will cause massive destruction planet wide, far more than we could hope to cause with our forces or fleets. The best thing we can do for ourselves, for the Compact and for the civilians is to pull back from Commande de Chateau and let them evacuate as many as they can. Its lost capability as a target, I already read drone shut downs across the RF forces. Their fleets are mostly withdrawing. Vino, meet up with my fleet, enact whatever repairs and resupply you can. Othen do the same, my force has had the least direct combat, let us handle any reinforcements or reprise attacks. Perhaps any key military installations not destroyed by the ring can be seized by us."
The message was sent over the BULO command net.
It was then Hager spoke to wide beam system broadcast.
"This is Admiral Hager of the BULO Compact. We are giving you space to evacuate Commande De Chataeu of as many lives as possible. Your main command network is broken and your flagship destroyed. I ask for the remaining forces in system to surrender where you will be treated under the BULO convention of war. This battle need not continue, more lives do not need to be lost. Please make the right choice."
The Admiral leant back into his seat.
"Do you think they will surrender?" One of the crew asked. Hager shrugged.
"I don't know. I hope they do, but they are a proud people"
Isolated in his pale-white pocket of tranquility, Vino didn’t see any of the visual devastation being brought down upon Commande and the Silver Ring. All he could see were text-based notifications and updates evaluating the damage readouts. The communique from Hager, once more in a roboticized, text-based manner to ensure calm and distance, therefore left Vino a little perplexed. To him, the opportunity was wide open to hammer home the advantage; not to give the enemy an opportunity to stall and reconsolidate their strength.
“Admiral Hager, may the 3rd Battlegroup remind you we have men still on Baril now under assault from the Royal Federation relief force. My battlegroup is still in direct engagement with the Federation reinforcements. I recommend your forces rendezvous with me, not vise-versa.” He had the AI translate his message into a monotonous, synthesized form and pinged it off to his operational superior.
Sitting and grunting each time he watched as, one by one, the third battlegroup’s ship signatures stopped responding and disappeared from the starmap, Vino awaited his response in their skirmish with Lucias. The depletion of many ADS/PDS weapons for many of the ships, now including parts of Vino’s own flagship, was becoming a notable problem that was forcing some of his ships to withdraw away from the combat zone entirely for lack of meaningful defensive capabilities.
One of his screens bleeped as the Federation forces honed in on Baril and its stranded forces. He could only hope that they and Tagvah could repulse the attack or, at the very least, hold out.
Tagvah himself, with his advanced force, continued to barrel towards the relief contingent, but they were not soon enough. The first waves of Royalist forces had already landed long before the Anyans had fallen upon the relief escorts. Once the distance was closed, though, the Anyans didn’t stop to maintain formation, despite the fire and crippled vessels they were taking on along the way. They continued forward to puncture the relief force entirely and force the two formations into disarray and leave the maneuvers down to individual ships targeting one and other. There was no illusion to Tagvah, the squadron was going to come out bloody no matter whether they were victorious or not, but breaking the royalist’s fleet supremacy in the region was the most important goal at that point.
Elsewhere, the 200 Skirmish ships under the Admiral Sebalfarescani, that to this point had been taking pot shots at a safe distance to Lucius’ rear, were now rushing to supplement and bolster Tagvah’s own group. Being the only compact force in that side of the system not split off by the Royalist fleet, Vino had ordered them to unite with the Anyans.
Down on Baril itself, the CEG occupation forces under Field Commander Senecaral had barely had the time to consolidate. They had received advanced word of the coming assault and amassed at Royalist military installations and hastily formed field centers out in unsuspecting locations. They lacked any significant anti-orbital capabilities, largely owing to them not being supplied to hold the planets, only to take them. What surface-to-sky defenses they did possess were limited to the atmosphere and, as such, the CEG was dependent on alien and mostly-sabotaged installations apprehended from the Royalist garrison.
What they lacked in anti-spaceship weaponry they at least could make up for, to an extent, with equipment like self-propelled AA and SAM systems. Having amassed largely into the polar regions of the planet, the compact defence had abandoned much of the equatorial regions and instead formed up strongpoints in more concentrated regions from which they targeted any landing craft in range they could. Some holdouts were entrenched out in the most obscure, mountainous spots. Others had taken up hold in logistical and strategic nexus’ and settlements.
Despite their concentration of forces, the fact was that this was an occupation force on a hostile planet, which had only taken their regions a short while before, who were now having to fight in an operational situation they had not been equipped to handle. Their primary aim was, therefore, to buy for time, maintain a decentralized and obscure command network, and to avoid being forced into engagements whenever possible.
Sealed inside his VR tacticianscape, Othen saw not the planet churn and boil under the hail of reentry from the Ring's growing count of debris. Holograms in simplified form showed it breaking up, polygons into polygons into more polygons as they recursed and fell inwards to the planet it was once host to. The faint rumble of thruster burns and the shake of cannon fire rocked the ship, providing percussion to their impacts upon the ailing, now failing megastructure. For a moment, he bid the visor lift, giving him full view through his bridge of the world as it began to burn and shower with molten metal. A grim sight, and a reminder of what truly went on behind that visor of his - one truncated by the tool swiftly returning to his head and the voice of Hager playing in his ear.
Hagers' transmission, when it reached Othen, gave him much the same concerns. Not for himself, but for Vino, locked in combat twicefold over Baril and near their trifecta. However, his ships were not as battered nor depleted, though to say they had taken losses was an understatement. Percentages lined his peripheral, grim in their high counts - 65% in damages, 34% in losses. Every ship in his fleet bore scorch marks and entry wounds, some more grievous than others, and the mothball that had been disgorged from his carriers had returned less than half of what it had been. Ammunition was running low on some of the smaller ships, and if their PD depleted they'd be sitting ducks for whatever they faced in combat next.
"Hager, Vino." He stated after a moment, stroking his chin. "My fleet will attempt to rendezvous with Hager's for resupply, if you plan to move to assist Vino. If we can consolidate at Baril, then seizing whatever's left will be made much easier." He paused, staring at the relief fleet over Baril. "Especially if they don't surrender."
His fleet began to move, on a tentative predicted arc intercepting Hager's fleet if it were to link with Vino's instead of vice versa. Their movement was slower, awaiting confirmation from the other two for their response.
Fort Federasia, Commande Surface
The call to surrender came in over an open channel, firstly he couldn't believe himself to be in such a position to be offered surrender. Enemies normally just wanted him dead or worse, or he was used to the one offering an end to the fighting. Secondly he couldn't believe that he himself was considering such an act. He wanted to escort the civilians off world sure and make sure his men made it home safe but something felt wrong about all of this and after watching the Silver Ring break apart and wreak devastation across the planet he couldn't bring himself to willingly consign himself let alone his men to these monsters. He had one last gambit to play to end the battle, a final play that wouldn't see the Federation Victorious but would see the BULO retreat with tail between their legs. He looked around to his command staff.
"Get me a line to everyone in the system, open broadcast and when I give the signal. Drop planetary Interdiction generators." He ordered his staff and they raced to set up the broadcast.
"Attention all BULO Compact forces in the system. This is Lord General Leonello of the Federation Army. I humbly reject your petition to a surrender and instead offer you the chance to retreat." He said plainly giving a nod to his staff.
"As your operators will inform you momentarily, we have just deactivated the planetary Interdiction network. You have five hours to leave sovereign Federation Space. As I speak our fair Duchess has just given authorisation to use Merveilleuse. Our ultimate weapon, failure to comply will see all your forces here destroyed and we will have all died together. I leave the decision up to you."
VMFR Regno, Commande System
Lucius listened to Leonello's message and looked to his command staff in horror. Although Merveilleuse was a powerful weapon its was also indiscriminate especially against friendly Federation forces too close to the enemy like Lucius's Forces were. The public didn't know about this titbit of information but people brought back from the two day war told of Longinius and Merveilleuse killing all with not differentiation between friend or foe.
"He can't be serious!" Lucius said to himself in disbelief
"HE CANNOT BE SERIOUS!" He shouted now.
"Tell our forces on Baril to grab anything they can in the next three hours, whatever they can't take we will destroy! I do not want to be within a lightyear of the system by the time it fires." He exclaimed.
"NOW" He shouted to the docile looking command staff.
On Baril Federation Marines reinforced hardpoints around depots, warehouses, hangers and anything containing military supplies. Heavy lifters would begin a routine pattern under heavy escort to land at these location and bring supplies back into orbit to the victorious relief fleet. Now moving to mop up the stragglers of the would be invaders the relief force was soon to be joined by the main Federation Fleet which was closely tailed by one of the main BULO task forces. Despite an early advantage against the force the match up was still more then even between the two Armadas, the balance decided by whether the other BULO Forces joined the fray.
Of course. Vino was right.
They couldnt let the forces on Baril fall.
"Understood, I will move to Baril for full support-"
He was cut as the open line reply from the Federation came through. His face taking on a grave aspect. So they wouldnt surrender for their own forces benefit, and were now preparing to use their superweapon. Typical, Hager wished dearly they had taken his offer.
"All ships commence precision bombardment on Commande De Chateau. We will then rendevouz with Vinos 3rd Task force and reinforce Baril."
"Sir what about the super weapon?"
"We always knew it was an option for them to use, if we keep our interdiction up at maximum power it means we can get entire minutes of time to evade its wrath. If we let the threat of its strike be omnipresent then we simply cannot win this war."
The crew seemed to accept the reply for now as Hagers fleet began to accelerate to meet up with Vino. Across the fleet missiles and other bombardment munitions were launched into stable orbits, each one calculated to strike a prescise target as they orbited above, as each got line of sight it deorbited, trying to impact and destroy command and control systems, weapon sites, military bases and more. They would not leave the world with its fangs still.
"Vino, Othen, this is Hager. I am now on course to you, keep interdiction up it will give us a chance against the incoming super weapon. If we are to die to it then let our people at home use it to triangulate its firing location, we cannot let the fear of it destroy our position in this war. Once at Baril we can spread out forces, Any further ideas?"
The impetuous disregard for Hager’s own life threw Vino back a little. But the do-or-die sentiment was sound. There was no going back now. The Compact had come here on the basis that the Royal Federation was turning into a regional, perhaps galactic, threat as more time progressed; withdrawing now would only make their chances all the more dire. They had committed.
Squinting with frustration at the Royalist’s messages, Vino watched as his fleet and that of Lucius continued to trade fire as they loomed ever closer and the casualty rate increased ever higher. Reclining back in his chair, the Admiral of the 3rd Battlegroup watched from the solitude of his bubbled office at the strategic theater. It seemed like the system was on the verge of being withered down from its last remaining strategic components; all they had to do was fight on a little longer. Unfortunately, with his active defence systems wearing out, gaps were forming and growing larger and larger among his own ranks.
He leant in and pinged a message back to Hager.
“Hager, Vino here. Our munitions are beginning to deplete. If new enemy forces arrive soon my forces won’t be of much more use to anyone. I’m advancing against the enemy’s lines to spearhead for Baril to ensure escorts of our withdrawals.” He informed them before terminating his transmission.
This would be the last transmission by Vino.
With his forces ever advancing to puncture the Royalist lines and his supplies now unstable, Vino was hit. A single strike from one of Lucius’ ships, likely a small escort, broke through his command sphere’s defensive array and instantly punctured the forward bow of the flagship. Almost in an instant, the vessel began to blast outwards in sequential explosions from forward to back. What remained of the former flagship of the Tanilan Home Fleet was sent flying like projectiles in all directions; there was little time for evacuation and certainly no time for mitigation.
Vino was gone with neither fanfare or climax. Another unceremonious loss in chaos and carnage of the battle.
In an instant, the 3rd Battlegroup’s vessels began to spiral and fluctuate like confused sardines in a shoal as each Admiral began taking emergency control of their respective sections. The battlegroup was rendered paralyzed from action until the individual member fleets coagulated their units back into their local commands, or until someone else took authority.
Field Commander Senecaral down on Baril, meanwhile, only made limited attempts to curtail the Royal Federation’s efforts to evacuate what supplies they could retrieve from the planet: A SAM missile striking supply carriers here, a raid on an armoury there. For the most part, however, Senecaral’s forces were much more determined in holding their established fortifications and destroying what they could of Royalist infrastructure in those zones, most notably warehouses and PD Installations.
Overhead, Tagvah’s naval force had now smashed into the Royalist forces and the battle for orbital supremacy had virtually become a dogfight of thousands of ships. While the arrival of Sebalfarescani’s ships helped to even the battle a little, it was becoming clear that this battle would be a pyrrhic victory at best unless more support arrived.
Othen's fleet continued to move, the dots on the map updating as if undercranked as Othen silently sighed. Eyes flitted over readouts, munitions graphs, damage reports each surrounding him like a crowd of flies. His neared Hager's, Hager's neared his, both nearing Vino. The enemy lay mostly broken
Their operation, seemingly, had begun it's natural conclusion.
The Federation transmission had changed that notion.
He bit his tongue, the taste of iron invading his sensory deprivation like a bullet.
Of course - why wouldn't they? No willing Fed would pass the chance to rage, scream against the night, the fact none of the three seemed to anticipate it was a hole in their intuition. Still, he couldn't help but feel... almost insulted. Would he rather condemn his men to hell alive than suffer some month in captivity, or some years of disgrace? Were it any other, they would have been given no such luxury, yet when presented they throw it aside like common trash. He told himself it was a bluff. A sick, sinking feeling beginning to take root in his gut told him otherwise and forcing his complexion to turn grave.
As Hager's forces began to move into bombardment positions, he resolved their next course of action.
"Vino, Hager. My forces will provide supporting bombardment coverage, but I will prioritize rendevousing with Vino. I cannot guarantee precis-"
He cut himself off, not from injury to ship nor broadcast termination, but to a readout and event unfolding that, once caught in his eye, momentarily made him falter. Vino, being sniped like a gopher, and his forces scattering like snowflakes. The broadcast never ending, Hager could hear Othen curse once and only, in a drawn out and harsh breath that only came after the tenuous, strung silence.
"...fffuck. Hager, change of plan. I'm going to try rallying Vino's forces, you focus on key targets planetside. We cannot be losing cohesion. Othen out."
His fleet engaged afterburners as a punctuation, Vino half-frantically assigning each of his admirals their assigned 'groups' pre-emptively as they began their approach. Guns began to line up on targets from afar, as they prepared to cover the scattered and disparate fleet elements, and a transmission raced like a messenger dove towards them from Othen's command ship - providing a key target, if any Federation ships were able to single out the signal source.
"Attention, attention. This is Othen. I can take emergency control of your respective battlegroups. We will cover you. Respond when received."
VMFR Regno, Baril Orbit, Commande system
Cheers filled the Command Centre as sensors registered the destruction of the enemy Flag ship. It seemed to act as a command and control network for their fleet and such threw them into disarray. There was finally some breathing room as the BULO Force raced to reorganise itself.
"Focus fire on any ship with increased comms traffic, Don't let them regroup easily." Lucius commanded happily.
The main Federation Fleet continued its defensive action at Baril while it awaited the conclusion of ground operations. Several depots and warehouses had simply been bombed via artillery bombardment or air strike, their destruction total to leave nothing for the enemy. Where the Federation Marines were having success they were evacuating as many assets as they could; Tanks, APCs, IFVs, Trucks, Weapons, Power Armour. Anything and everything they would need to fight a prolonged ground war. An unfortunate side effect of this operration was the alck of civilian resuce and evacuation. At the safer sites crowds were beginning to form as thousands of civilians desperate to get off world encroached on the Federation Landing Zones. Some areas stayed true to their orders as rolled out vehicles or heavily armoured troops to intimidate the civilians while other sites allowed them to leave. The confusion the compassion of some commanders caused would result in their reprimand after the battle.
Fort Federasia, Commande Surface
"Radiological Alarms!" Someone shouted.
"Here it comes, prepare counter measures." Leonello ordered
Suddenly the screens in the command centre flickered and died, Leonello's stomach dropped for a second and then suddenly everything came back to life. In the central display of the command centre the Paladin appeared, his avatar was beaten and bloodied. A slight dramatization on the AIs part.
"I've assumed control of orbital weapons and countermeasures. I'm enabling the Fortress shield now." The AI said stoically.
Overhead outside a beam reached into the sky and began spreading around the Fort as several small beams began activating. The first wave of incoming munitions were targeted and destroed with ease now that the Paladin was back in action. Fort Federasia would be able to hold out for a time but other smaller Orbital Fortresses around the planet would be overhwlmed either due to the sheer volume of missiles or damage caused by the Destruction of the Silver Ring. Reports flooded of Bases and Fortress alike being consumed by nuclear fire. Leonello could only hope that his own defences would hold long enough for the evacuation. Although with the destruction of several Forts the incoming civilians from the underground Mag Lev would slow down as part of the network were destroyed blocking all traffic.
"Paladin, how long can you hold the line?" Leonello asked the AI solemnly.
"Not forever, Key parts of the Defence Network were destroyed by the collapse of the Silver Ring. It was over before it started it seems. I can offer no estimates Lord General, I recommend Evacuation of everyone and anyone you can." The Paladin responded bluntly.
"Keep counter measures up and continue firing at enemy ships in orbit, make them regret every missile they stop to launch. Begin evacuating non essential military personnel"
"Understood Vino. Good luck"
Just moments after that sentence. Vino was gone.
Hager didnt even fully register it, as he watched the damage report from Vinos fleet and the flagship being destroyed. Surely he could not die so quickly without his work undone?
The threat of the super weapon destroying them did not give Hager fear, but seeing one of his good comrades who he had risen through the ranks with die, suddenly and without any warning had shaken him. It took him several moments to actually understand Othens statement.
"I-I understand Othen. Bring those men and women back from the brink, ill do what I can"
"Sir we are receiving more fire, Baril defending RF elements appear to be targetting our ship"
"Cutting the head to kill the body..." Hager scowled "Smart. But lets give them a choice. Target major military installations on Baril, none close to Senecals location we want him rescued, and wipe them out"
"Sir, some of those are on top of civilian centers"
Hager paused, feeling the bridge crew turn towards him. He had been careful so far. He hesitated, but the thought of Vinos death made him nod.
"Then this will show the Royalists not to confuse the two. We cannot leave them with fangs to use against us, try to keep devastation light but ensure those military bases are wiped out"
The taskforce launched a full bombardment spread towards the planet, forcing the RF defending fleet to either engage Hagers force directly or protect their own world. Fire was directed towards the RF defenders too, BULO vessels detonating as fire came in to strike critical ships. Hager was gambling, either way the RF would suffer.
It was chaos amongst the ranks of the Third Battlegroup. Ships zipped to and fro in no particular doctrinal fashion as they rushed to reform into their smaller units. All the while, the Royal Federation were taking the opportunity to flake off the already defensively depleted Bulo forces. The reorganisation left escorts moving without ships to protect, and capital ships without proper units to complement their flanks. Two unit command ships belonging to the Tangasine and Angfar had also been put out of action as they attempted to recoup their forces. Dozens of ships had been knocked out of the battle by the time that they had restored their cohesion under the command of Othen.
For a brief while, the ships turned and began moving away from the Royalists; hastening their approach to the security of the larger battlegroups. Once they had reached the screen of Othen’s lines, each fleet falled in under his command. The broken Third Battlegroup had been absorbed to form a much larger armada under Othen.
Senecaral’s defence on Baril continued as planned, with the sabotage and destruction of what logistical infrastructure they could. Now, however, the units were notably beginning to reduce the spread of their forces into smaller, and more centralised groups centered around areas that were relatively accessible for an extraction. The Field Commander was ensuring that, once the main force arrived, the ground unit’s retreat would be brief; fighting on the planet over strategic locations was winding down.
Othen's fleet merged with Vino's like water, and it couldn't have been soon enough. Already two of their admirals were out of action, lost in the confusion along with a plethora from every fleet before cohesion had been restored. At the very least, they were alive; bereft of ammunition, supply and repair, but alive. Othen's mental commands went out like clockwork, the more able-bodied ships disgorging precious supplies to those most in need.
"Hager." His voice was terse and strained, mental uplink half-overloaded from the sudden strain of recohesing Vino's forces. "Vino group confirmed code yellow. Rendevousing at Baril. Continuing-"
His ship without warning shook like an earthquake, a rumble heard even through his sensory deprivation. His blood ran cold as the holofeed flickered, and a damage readout confirmed his fears; the command ship had been hit critically. Midsection, ammo cookoff. Hangars unusable. Thousands dead, more injured. Iron invaded his mouth again.
"I'm hit...!" He said, radio fluctuations turning his voice crackly and distorted. "Still combat capable. Regrouping... regrouping with you." He paused, uplinks from Group 3 giving readouts of Senecaral's situation. "Baril. We have to hurry."
His fleet, now bloated with their charges, began a full burn to Baril on intercept with Hager's fleet, though they offered supporting fire to Hager as missiles and shells flew across the void like false starlight. Hager was beginning to feel a cruel pressure, both from his uplink and the devolving situation. Their reserves, though inflated for their direct combat role, were beginning to dwindle. Their defenses were being pushed to the limit, maybe then some. And the Federation had managed to reactivate part of their defense network, on top of activating a red code from their superweapon.
Only one resolution had cemented in his head; they needed to end this, and as quickly as they could.
VMFR Regno, Baril Orbit, Commande system
"Admiral, ground forces have almost finished evacuation. The last of the dropships have been dispatched now."
"Enemy reformation confirmed, incoming-"
The ship shuttered violently as the now reorganised and reinforced enemy fleet began their assault once more. It was more then what he could handle with his battered fleet, no ship had been left unharmed and the strength of his force was beginning to wane.
"Alert the fleet and take us out of orbit, best speed to the systems edge." Lucius ordered.
"Admiral, what about our ground forces?" The army liaison shouted.
"If we wait any longer that fleet will close and we'll be caught in the Merveilleuse fire." Lucius retorted.
The man finding that answer lacklustre moved to the command console next to the Admiral.
"Admiral, we can't leave all those men down there for the enemy." He continued and Lucius gave no answer.
"Dammit, you leaving them to die!" The man slammed his fist down and cracked the screen, causing the hologram to flicker.
Lucius turned on the man and grabbed him by his colar with both hands.
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT! You think I make this choice lightly, No but someone has to get us out of this mess!" Lucius shouted throwing the man backwards where he fell to the ground.
"Get back to your station, helm move us out of orbit. Now!" Lucius commanded.
The last wave of dropships hit the atmosphere as the word came through to them, they would have to bare the bad news to the troops still holding on. These rear guard troops drew the short straw, but they wouldn't throw their lives away meaninglessly if the enemy launched a counter attack. They finished the mission and scuttled anything that could be of use to the enemy and they threw down their arms and raised flags of surrender pre-emptively. The Fleet under Lucius returned little of the enemies fire as most of the fleets power went to defences and engines as they made best speed towards the systems edge. A sour taste in the mouths of everyone involved.
Fort Federasia, Commande surface
Leonello watched the mushroom clouds forming in the distance along the horizon, a terrible fate had just beholden one of the larger cities on the planet. Across the globe several fortress were wiped off the map in similar fashion as the anti missile system was overwhelmed and destroyed piece meal by the massive bombardment. This was the end, he knew it. There was only one choice now, to escape before the nuclear fire consumed Fort Federasia, it would last longer then most thanks to the Paladin but not forever.
"Its time to go." Leonello said to the command staff. They stopped and looked at him.
"There's no more trains inbound, we're all that's left. Its time to leave." He continued walking to the base PA system.
"Attention all personnel, begin evacuation. We're finished, It's finished. We did our duty well this day and we will return. Now get moving." He said sadly.
Claxons sounded as the base personnel began moving to the sublevels of the base towards the wormhole gate beneath it, trains had returned empty to take the survivors back to Adalouse where it was safe. Leonello stopped at the dsiplay where the Paladin had his avatar.
"I will stay behind, protocol is that all remaining data centres must be destroyed to prevent capture. Stored consciousness and AI have been moved, Only I remain now." The Paladin said solemnly
"Will we see you again?" Leonello asked.
"You will not, my successor The Sentinel is to take my place once I perish." The Paladin replied.
Leonello saluted and the avatar and The Paladin returned it. They parted ways. The evacuation was quick and efficient, Leonello waited for the last train before departing as he stepped on he could feel the thunderous shake of the ground as missiles finally breached the defences. He left wordless back to report on the battle to the Duchess.
The bloom of damaged and destroyed Federation ships filled Othen's holosphere, laboured breathing muffled by a humidiant he had strapped to his face. The aeroslized stimulants and nanomeds invading his system were necessary, his cranial jack still loaded from the additional strain it wasn't calibrated for yet. Baril lay within transit speeds, yet so did Merveilleuse. A dread timer had hung over their heads from the minute Leonello had made his announcement, and as Othen's combined fleet remained on full burn the time that had passed had lapsed his mind. Opening a bead to the Neraguesean admiral, the head of the Desalasan Diaspora figured he looked quite pathetic right now.
"Vathador. How long ago... was Leonello's announcement?" He said, straining as both his and Hager's fleets threatened to merge.
"I count... 4 hours, 13 minutes, sir Othen." He intoned back, his expression turning grave.
"...damn it." One of his hands magnetically guided themselves to his face, greedily lapping up the sweat upon it. "Vino, his men... how many...?"
"I wouldn't know, sir. I'd have to consult his admirals."
"And how long... would the... the landers take to... fully evacuate?"
A silence hung on the Neregeuse end, before he responded with solemnnity. "Starting right now, optimistically, 30 minutes. At most, we would have... 17 minutes to warp out."
"Thank you, Vathador." He nodded, speaking on a sigh. He expected this, in truth. Time had blurred while he reorganized Vino's fleet, began the burn to Baril. He cursed to himself internally - 17 at best would still be cutting it close, for the largest ships in the fleet their drives took up to 10 minutes to spool up. And it was an optimist's estimate.
He thought of how many men could have been deployed to Baril. How many tens, maybe hundreds of thousands deployed planetwide to every possible major military installation, all for establishing tactical superiority. How many that, were he to cut losses now, would be stranded in enemy territory, likely to be executed or worse by the Feds when they arrived after Merveilleuse had sent her foul gifts. Uncountable families, uncountable tragedies. The jack accentuated emotion with the strain, and he elected to pursue on one order only.
No man left behind.
"Hager." Another transmission from Othen's ship, still crackling from the damage suffered earlier. On sensors, the largest ships of the fleet had begun an early spoolup of their drives while still keeping their trajectory. "Warp your forces out. Ours will engage packup operations at Baril, then jump. 30 minutes. We, we should make it."
A pause, before he continued, voice dimmed. "If we don't, know this was an honor. Fair winds. Othen out."
Silence reigned once more, as Othen's armada careened towards Baril.
Hager debating giving a reply, stating that he would ignore Othens statement. That he would assist in the evacuation and cover his fleets withdraw.
But Othen was right. They didn't have the time.
He would not make it.
Better to withdraw, than to lose their entire force.
"Fair Winds Othen. Come back safe" Was all he managed to send.
"Admiral FTL drives are charged and ready"
Hager took a deep breath. He looked at the casualty estimates already and the damage inflicted here, he though about Vino's death. This all had to be worth it.
"Drop interdiction and jump"
The order was given, the last of Hagers formation dissapearing as it jumped away from the system, hoping, praying. That rest of the BULO force would make it out as well. (edited)
The experience for the average soldier in the following hours was one characterised by a blind and desperate frenzy. Having already amalgamated at their hardpoints, the Bulo landforces began a full evacuation even before the fighting between forces above Baril had abated.
General Senecaral himself made it a personal policy to only make his own departure once the only men left were the dwindling rearguard deployed to ensure that no last minute suicidal operation had been planned. Defended by Admiral Tagvah’s forces as they united with Othen’s, the troop ships one by one began to attach to their motherships or independently flash out from the system. The evacuation at Baril left no man behind, but most heavy equipment, ordinance and armour was left to be bathed in the destruction that would later follow.
The goal of the Baril assault had been to damage the strategic infrastructure of the Royal Federation. The goal now seemed to have been rendered redundant, and thousands of lives had been lost in pursuit of it. Vino was among them, and represented the most highest-ranking casualty among all Bulo forces present during the operation. A memorial would later be erected on his homeworld in memory of the sacrifice of both him and the Compact’s servicemen.
The battle was done, but a war was only beginning.
The day was going in a typical manner since the Federation had joined the war. Aid requests would come, a detachment was formed and dispatched, repeat. Over several dozen minor battles were successful with aid from the Federation and they were only able to do this due to the extensive command structure set up for their military as well as its powerful logistical capacity. Which was now about to come under threat. Klaxons sounded as the War Room went silent and the central displayed the impossible; Invasion.
Diabella was the first to say something in a dumbstruck room.
"Status, Position, Numbers, ETA!" She shouted.
"Turn off the Klaxons!" She added.
"Status: Warping, Position: Outer Colonies, Numbers: Best estimate at ten thousand plus, ETA: hours at best guess."
"Recall detachments, ready all ships theatre wide and issue Defence Condition One. I want everything we have here and ready to fight. Alert SAGA command of the situation." Diabella ordered.
The room picked up in noise as everyone started getting to work, across the width and breadth of the Federation the shockwaves of this invasion were felt already. Fleets stationed at the other 'Mondes de guerre' in the Federation began making preparations to join the battle, but some would join well after it started. Fortresse Levis and Honfleur fleets would arrive first. Noveau Lyon and Strabourg II would arrive later and a single fleet from the North Zakar would follow suit. The second North Zakar Fleet would stay on high alert for local activity.
Diabella focused on how she would defend the system, it was going to be difficult to defend, four worlds were settled and all served as cogs in the machines that made the system so important. Forger served as the main mining and refining point in the system, sending processed materials to Commande de Chateau. Baril was a logistical centre with extensive stores and shipping facilities as well as dual orbit with one of the system gates. Exterieur would have to be abandoned perhaps or-
She was cut off by a laugh with great gusto. The lights flickered with anticipation as the display in the centre was hijacked. Appearing before the War Room was a monstrous figure clad in armour and a great shield; The AI Paladin tasked with home defence and the longest serving AI in Federation history.
"My protocols have been activated and my slumber has ceased, all defences are transferred to my control. Milady, I stand ready to rout the interlopers." The Paladin said excited.
"Paladin, long time no see. It'll be a privilege to work with you again." Diabella replied kindly. The War Room staff gave each a few looks of confusion.
"Your insight Paladin, what do you think is the best course?" She asked the figure. The Paladin laughed.
"My data centres burn with excitement at the prospect to fight, but I need the enemy in one spot for maximum effectiveness of Electronic Warfare. Ride out and meet them in high orbit." Paladin said striking a fighting pose.
"Very well, there's too many of them and not enough of us, we need to play to our strengths. Order the fleets to point B seven T five." Diabella ordered.
"What about the other planets in system?" Someone asked.
"If we defend everything, we defend nothing. They'll pick us off with ease and we'll be left with nothing. Decisive battle is our best bet." Diabella replied looking towards the operator alerting SAGA. The operator gave her a knowing look and shook his head.
"Besides it seems like there will be no help coming this time." She remarked saddened.
"Leonello, see to the ground war. I leave it to you to hold the orbital forts." Diabella said making for the exit.
"I'm taking personal command of the battle from the Rhongomyniad. This battle is priority nothing else matters unless Adalouse is assaulted."
Commande System: Royal Federation Space
Hager was on the verge of chewing out one of the bridge crew for the tapping sound until he realised it was the motion of his own leg.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, passing it off as a moment of boredom. As the Admiral of the 1st Compact Combined Fleet he couldn’t show anxiety or weakness, not at the stage they were. Truth be told, Admiral Hager of the Republic of Angsun was more anxious now than he ever had been, even beyond his own wedding night. This day had been anticipated for almost two decades and by countless individuals before him. Finally, after all this time, the Bulo Compact was dealing with the problem on their doorstep, the Royal Federation.
His contingent of forces numbered around 4000 ships, the same amount as the other two contingents commanded by Admirals from the Republic of Desalasa and the Federation of Tanila respectively, and yet he had been given overall jurisdiction of the operation. It had been jointly planned, carefully orchestrated and meticulously combed for detail over the last two years by intelligence operations and strategic planners from all of the Bulo nations. Everything came down to this moment, the running skirmishes, the political back and forth and the constant shadow of war. It all came down to this hammerblow strike. The Compact had watched what the Federation had done to the Zentharans and to the ACR, it would not allow itself to be caught off guard and have its main force struck by the Federation super weapon.
With Hager came the combined forces of Angsun itself followed by battlegroups gathered from the Associated States of Abidilo, Republic of Veteria, Illustrious and Magnanimous Republic of The Winchesix and of course Krul’s Khanate, the last of which made up a great deal of his individual contingent. It was an ad hoc formation and gathering and while Hager had fought alongside Abidilo before and considered reliable allies the others were somewhat jumpy. It was why he had been given command of the more troubled elements of the Compacts force. The Khanate were raring for the fight, Hager had absolutely no doubts about their capabilities just doubts about whether he could reel them in and keep them under his orders. Veteria he had more personal issues with, mainly due to the ideological disagreements between them and other Compact members, he had never seen them fight for real, only in wargames and manuvers, he just hoped they were the proper deal. And as for the Winchesix… Their entire obsession with drugs and castes made him almost grimace when he looked upon their ornately displayed breathing apparatus, they were only out for themselves and that was abundantly clear in all things. No doubt if this operation went sideways, they would be the first to flee.
Still the other contingents were also mixed bag affairs, he only hoped the other Admirals had an easier time than him.
“Commande entry in 45 seconds”
The call made him clench his hands.
“Orders stand. We strike the nearest FTL gates and deny reinforcements, destroy all orbital facilities and defences around Exterieur then assist in bringing the Federation fleet to battle directly alongside our allies. I have received word we have ICA allies on this fight but we don’t know if the Federation has received aid. Report readiness” Hager had all of the relevant commanders on the line of his battlegroup.
“Associated States Fleet Alba Confirms orders and readiness” The voice and image of Admiral Riuga comforting Hager.
“Republic Fleet group is fully ready for engagement we have all orders received” The huge female admiral Efolyup boomed across the link.
“Khanate Fleet group Strikeheart stands ready. We read you Admiral Hager our fire will finally incinerate these SAGA scum” Battlemaster Tarceea banged his fist against his chestplate as a sign of respect and salute.
“Our illustrious armada is at the ready, your orders are indeed received” The pompous somewhat artificial tone of Conductor Qazobo finally came through the line, the sound of his heavy raspy breathing making Hager twitch.
“Good. Entry in 10. Fair winds members of the Compact”
“Other Contingents report ready”
“Then let’s get this done”
The FTL shock from the massive Bulo fleets lit up every scanner in the Invilis Corridor as main drives ignited. Hager instantly took stock of the system.
“Commence attack, all elements of the 1st CCF begin operation”
Almost immediately attack craft were launched across the fleet as interdiction was raised, however a series of heavy doors retracted across the Veterian fleet quickly launching a series of massive super torpedoes which ignited their drives and spread out to lock onto the nearest FTL gate and other orbital elements over Exterieur.
The southern front had gone hot.
Commande
The rumble of the ship could put a man to sleep, were it not for circumstance.
Admiral Othen knew this as fact. He had men who took advantage of it, he'd fallen asleep at the desk himself as an ensign long ago. Even now, a part of him wished to be back in those days, where he didn't have to worry so much about championing the nation's military. But the sight of what felt like most of the Desalasan Diaspora on all sides was a potent reminder of where and who he was, and what they were here for. In the distance, he could see the other groups glinting like starlight, will'o'wisps from far away numbering in the thousands. It was a sight inspiring and terrifying, something to bring anxiety in even the most unflappable of his men.
Years they'd spent planning for this. Years they had fretted over the tiniest details, enjoyed the constant meetings, the endless political games and fillibusters. The culmination of two-point-five years, three-point-six months of orchestration had led up to him sitting in a chair, aboard the bridge of the flagship of the Delasalan Diaspora, about two minutes away from jumping into the information capital of the Royal Federation. A deep breath and renewal of focus was applied liberally, lest he become imbibed with the heat of the moment.
His forces were numbered at a flat 4000, same as everyone else. There was an asterisk to be had at the notion; they were supplanted in half by a strike force from the ICA, due to his contingent's forces coming from more lacking militaries. He knew the others well-battlegroups from Neraguese, the Sanidians, Wesa-Masini, Kitunhelm. It was a somewhat ad-hoc affair, though that could be said of the others. The Neraguese he could trust, they prided themselves on dependability and their ships were practically mandated to be top of the line. The Sanidians he knew personally to be inflexible and pushy, but they would follow orders if it meant skinning themselves alive from the exoskeleton up. Wesa-Masini, he'd never seen them in combat, same with Kitunhelm. He'd have to trust that they were what the wargames advertised-though atleast the latter was enthusiastic about it. The ICA forces were the wildcard, and the ones he secretly saved the doubt for. They were as eclectic as everyone else on their own, practically their own battlegroup. He knew they'd seen combat, and the reports weren't pretty-a losing two-on-one against the other most influential force in the Corridor and those glorified warbands to the northwest. They were vouched for, though, and from what he knew this was be their proving ground. Do well, and we'll have a fine relationship, and all that.
"Sir? Jump drives're ready. We're jumping in 45." The voice of the call shook him from thought, and the reflex to flinch was barely suppressed.
"Orders stand. Our target is the Command de Chateau. We hit their data centers while the others keep the Grand Navy at bay. Cripple the horse's legs." He took a conn in his hands, the touch activating it like a magical lamp. "ALCON, report readiness."
"NGVN Gruppe 1 stands ready." The stoic visage of Admiral Vathador eased his tension.
"Sanidian fleet group reports readiness. Awaiting the call." chittered Admiral Exthes, causing his ears to twitch.
"Both fleet groups report ready. We're ready when you are." noted Admiral Danaan, tipping his hat. He was told it was a good luck tradition.
"Kitunhelm group is full-bore. We are ready and waiting." boasted Admiral Kvorden, the bass notable even through a tinny holoscreen.
"All ICA elements report ready. We're with you." came the final call from Admiral De'lan, to which he nodded.
"Clear and ready. Shocking in 10. Fair winds."
A wave of his hand sent the ready signal to Admiral Hager's fleet, and 10 seconds later they departed into the void, leaving behind a shockwave that glittered in the eternal night. (edited)
-
Battlegroup 2 came in with fervor, immediately disgorging swarms of flies as interdiction was raised. They began the full burn towards the Command, as the precourse from the Veterians began to eke their way towards the FTL gates that languished in the distant black sea. They could offer no such appetizers, for they were the main course-the mothball began moving at an arc, with the endpoint aimed square at the Chateau.
Admiral Vino was poised and ready for action as he sat within his office. For, aboard his Tanilan flagship there was no bridge. Every station was segregated into its own respective compartment; interconnected through screens, it was microcosmic of the broader structure of the Tanilan battleforce. Centered around communication between all forces rather than autonomy for individual ships, the Admiral’s office was not the personal bridge for just his ship, but essentially for the entire Tanilan navy present.
Here, in the office, the bustle, orders and hectic management of the rest of the ship was isolated; shut out by a compartmental design that adjusted the office to cushion vibrations and noise to the best of its ability. The idea was to cut the Admiral off from distractions to the best of his ability to allow for the greatest focus on the tactical situation to the best of his ability. All communications were to come in through transmissions, messages sent by officers that were in turn pacified by a text-to-speech AI that ensured all information was delivered concisely, and with calm precision.
Vino’s forces represented the final spear of the Bulo battlegroup: An expedition that had taken years of quiet organization and planning to come into fruition. But no one was surprised at its conception, nor its target. The Royal Federation had been toying with the balance of power in the region for decades. First colonizing its immediate environs, then destroying its Colonial rivals, the only column towards supreme Royalist dominance in the region now fell to the native polities, and there were none stronger than the accumulated force of the Compact.
The Bulo alliance existed for this sole purpose: To break Royalist power and end their hegemony once and for all. Vino knew, he could feel, the weight on his shoulders. His forces depended on him, his homeland depended on him, and the galaxy now depended on him. This battle could shape the fate of the world.
Despite the pressure, Vino was quite disappointed. It had been Angsun that was delegated with the task of leading the assault and directing all strategic command. To Vino, his flagship, the de-facto flagship of the alliance itself and a vessel Vino had full confidence in, had been delegated to second place beside the lead of an ‘Admiral Hager’ and his vessel. Still, he couldn’t help but admit that the choice was ripe. Hager was the best choice for experience, he understood and knew space battles with a keen eye; Vino had risen to his position through logistician work and international politics. He was a seasoned communicator, but he was as fresh as a baby to a struggle of this scale.
Deeply inhaling, then exhaling, the Admiral waited.
[Navigation. Arriving at Chateau. ETA: 45 Seconds.] Arrived the calm notification.
Vino’s forces were accompanied by a coalition of their own. Following in tow were the Tangasine forces, a veritable smorgasbord of ship classes of all different shapes and sizes; there were 11 classes of destroyer alone within their gaggle of federated national naval forces. Their officers had a seasoned history of fighting amongst themselves before they had reached detente some long ago, but the prestige and experience of their officer corps had stuck. What repute they made with their leadership, they wavered with their division and insular communications among their national cliques. Vino knew he would need to be watchful of disorganization amongst them.
Also accompanying them was New Angsun: A previous colony of Angsun (Itself a colony of Tanila), New Angsun were providing what forces their rural economy could afford to do so. New Angsun contributed a few dozen vessels, most of second-hand, foreign origin, purchased from Tanila, Angsun and even some Zetyan cells. They were appreciated nonetheless.
Finally, with the naval core came the Angfarians. A colony-state of the Deruid race, Angfar had brought a respectable force in the hundreds containing even a few home-made designs. The Angfarians were not an experienced naval force and Vilo trusted them to defer to his planning and coordination, but he equally worried for their capacity to act with initiative or confidence if things were to break down into disorganization.
This core force numbered approximately 2,800 ships, with the vast majority being part of the expansive Tanilan navy; the largest numerical force within the compact. However, this coalition came with satellites.
Totaling 400 ships came the Deruid Free Republic. A state dedicated to the ethnonationalism of the Deruid people, the FRD had joined the Bulo Compact out of a distanced cooperativism with their neighbours that had flourished into an arms-length friendship. Nonetheless, the FRD were averse to playing subordinate to foreign governments and had consequently been sub-branched to autonomous duties. Their orders were to maintain their distance and to stifle any reinforcements that might arrive from wherever and, should things become desperate, provide a reserve force where necessary. Their forces were quick and small, but limited the capacity to hold their own in any drawn-out exchange of fire and defences.
Similarly, a force of 800 were arriving behind the primary Tanilan force. This expedition belonged to the Deruids from Anya. An elder-state amongst the Compact, the Anyans brought with them their own ship designs, their own technology, their own electronic combat units and their renowned array of intel-gathering equipment. For the most part, the Anyans were relegated to the task of hanging back at a safer range from the battle proper. Their task was to provide a screen to the Combined Expeditionary Group: An extensive collection of smaller crafts carrying specially trained landing forces, special forces, armour and naval deployments and more for Compact prospects to engage in planetary assaults upon the system if a window were to open. The Anyans and their advanced navy were tasked with screening this expedition from any preemptive attacks by the Federation defence and, in the event of an assault, covering the force’s approach to any assigned targets.
As FTL signatures of Battlegroup 1 and 2 both flared across the board, Vino and Battlegroup 3 arrived from the opposite direction. Seemingly popping into existence in the droves on the brink of stellar range and immediately winding up their interdiction cores, Battlegroup 3 made their advance towards the first target: Baril and its neighboring gate.
“Components report in.” Vino commanded.
[Arch-Admiral Karesh of the Tangasine, ready and proceeding with commands.] Chimed the harmonised computer with the appearance of the lithe Tangasine officer’s avatar, beside him arrived those of the others.
[Admiral of the Fleet Hager-Daan reporting ready and proceeding.] Joined the unemotive voice, accompanied by the visage of a young, humbly-uniformed Tanilan.
[Admiral Danatesakalahiti here, Angfar stands beside you, Admiral, come what may.] Buzzed through the dutiful, well-groomed visage of an Angfarian career officer.
Shortly after pings from the autonomous blocs came through to confirm their arrivals.
[Admiral Sebalfarescani confirming FRD operations have begun. Your word better be worth the trust we’re putting in it, Admiral.] The computer voiced from the Free Republic’s commander, despite it’s neutralised tone, Vino could feel the doubt and lack of confidence oozing from the FRD’s skirmishers.
[Admiral Tagvah calling to Vino. The Combined Expeditionary Group is on-location, the galaxy holds it breath, Admiral.] Vino knew Tagvah, and he knew he was right, but he would’ve preferred to be without the extra mental baggage right now.
“Vino to all sections, you know your orders, god-speed.” With that he concluded the outgoing transmission and turned to his battlegroup comms, “Intelligence report.”
The 3rd Compact Combined Force began its rapid approach upon Baril. Almost immediately the Bulo cruisers of the 3rd Battlegroup unleashed their first barrage of the day. Missile after long-range missile were locked and fired upon Baril’s nearby FTL gate. The plumes of hundreds upon hundreds of rockets zipped forth in a torrent of streams upon their target.
Once that source of entry was eliminated, the FRD harassment force would be able to redirect upon the remaining FTL gates around the system and Vino would be able to join up with Othen’s vanguard and lock the Royal Federation Fleet in from multiple directions. Intel’s buzz came through.
[Intelligence. Royalist naval forces are concentrating around Commande de Chateau. No interstellar forces situated around Baril nor Forger, they are condensing their assets into a larger battleforce.]
“Good. We will ensure the inaction of the gate and begin our rendezvous with Battlegroup 2. Tagvah will prioritize and command the assault of Baril, then Forger, should this become a long-haul we need their infrastructure razed and our troops on the ground. Get his boys to get me intel on the PDF’s for both of them, too.”
Vino reclined into his chair as he squinted at the readouts. They had left themselves defenceless to his contingent, but he knew he needed to race to support the central fight as soon as he could, they could not afford to be divided and picked off individually.
"Confirmed enemy contact twelve thousand plus in three distinct battle groups."
"Fortresse Levis Primary Gate is down, Secondary has gone dark."
"Exteriur reports engagement of orbital defences, Total collapse in sixty minutes."
"Incoming directly towards us eight thousand plus"
Diabella sighed at the sight of the opposing enemy force, She only had to beat four thousand ships three times, she tried to rationalise. She took a moment before realising the command crew of the Rhongomyniad were looking to her for orders.
"Tell Exteriur ground commanders to hold the orbital fortresses and deny the enemy landing. Status of the reinforcements?" Diabella asked.
"Honfleur is coming through now, Fort Levis is delayed due to gate destruction they are spooling up warp drives now."
"Have the Honfleur forces join us at Commande, we'll hold the line here." Diabella said.
Suddenly on the holographic display the Paladin appeared, his previous happy demeanour was shadowed by a sense of fear.
"I wasn't expecting them to hit this hard, I can't do much else for Exteriur if you have anything to evacuate from there you have about fifty minutes before the enemy has full orbital superiority. The sheer numbers is what is killing me." The Paladin lamented.
"Save your woes Paladin, We'll get through this. Soon the entirety of the Grand Navy will be here and nothing will stand against us." Diabella said rousingly, to discourage the negative impact of the Paladins words on the crew.
"Milady, I'm receiving a communication from Merveilleuse, requesting orders." One of the operators exclaimed.
"Order them to stand down, they are not to unleash the genie. Make sure they understand that entirely." Diabella's tone suddenly turned vicious at the mention of Merveilleuse.
The Operator taken aback by Diabella's response acknowledged the order and passed it on.
As the Forces of the Compact approached the Federation, they began warming weapons and readying defensive measures. for the brutal slog fest that was about to commence, from the Honfleur gate arrives a fresh fleet of Federation ships from Fleet group Ganymede began taking a wider approach to join the Forces already stationed at Commande.
Commande System: Royal Federation Space
The gate had spectacularly detonated along with the handful of orbital stations which had accompanied it, Hager had not taken his eyes off the tactical read out since they had arrived, watching Admiral Vino and Admiral Othen’s contingents respectively carry out their objectives. With the closest gate destroyed it would have no doubt delayed reinforcements to the enemy, but now they had to secure and pacify Exterieur to ensure it didn’t launch any surface to space strikes or make unexpected plans.
“All forces engage orbital facilities, cripple civilian dockyards but destroy military installations. I want precision orbital bombardment on identified surface to orbit weaponry, airfields and military bases, remember to keep the bombardment tight we do not want any civilian casualties. I will not sully our illustrious alliance with such crimes”
Hagers orders were acknowledged as the taskforce moved in towards the planet, making Hager take his eyes off the data reads and towards the main viewscreen for the first time.
The giant marble before him showed many different hues, being a temperate world it appeared to have oceans, deserts, jungles and large expanses of ice near the poles. Such a shame they had squandered such a beautiful world for military usage only, just one of the things the colonials took the granted in this galaxy.
Alerts popped up indicating ship losses, already his fleet was firing on the main orbital fortress located close to the space elevator which was designated a key capture zone. Vessels exploded as they went back and forth but already tactical analysis was identifying the bombardment targets. Three large fortress complexes containing surface to space weapons, airfields and vehicle depots were the main threats, located unfortunately close to the three planetary population centers. Other smaller military bases were identified but the risk of collateral was not present there at least.
As the firefight with the orbital fortress continued the Khanate division of the fleet along with Winchesix swung into a holding pattern, inlaying bombardment targets they fired in unison. All across the planet fiery streaks flew through blue skies as projectiles and nuclear munitions impacted military bases, rocking them with devastating explosions. Hager twitched however as he saw nuclear munitions used to target the larger orbital fortresses, shockwaves already pummelling the civilian quarters of the cities.
“This is Admiral Hager, cease nuclear bombardment near civilian population centres, your causing unneeded collateral damage” This was precisely what Hager was worried about with the Khanate, however he was surprised to see them acknowledge and cease. To their credit, they had been as accurate as possible, but the shockwaves would bound to have devastated non-combat regions. He supposed that is what happens when you build military centres adjacent to civilians.
“All vessels render surface weapons inoperable, then begin pacification. Strike teams I want control of the elevator and rubble of the bases. Remember, get in, get out, this is not an occupation or full-on invasion”
Pre-planned strike forces detached from the fleet, commencing orbital drops onto the bombarded bases and across the length of the orbital elevator. They were not heavy forces, only meant to seize and mop up remaining elements. The Bulo did not have the time or forces to conduct full scale ground invasions, at least not on this planet.
COMMAND DE CHATEAU
The ambient rumble hemmed and hawed, variance in engine output tumbling through the ship like waves in a pond. Othen's gaze was immersed in a VR tacticiascape, a large headset visor locked down onto his head the instant they had shocked into the Chateau and keeping him imprisoned in a world of vector lines and status readouts. The ships ringing the Chateau, the ships warping in from Honfleur, the faint warp signals dying out at the Fortresse gates, all things he saw even before his crew could note them for the others. They were at the halfway point now, and it was punctuated by an alarm tone, hushed yet noticeable all the same.
'Attention. Long-range combat imminent. Prepare stations. Prepare stations.' repeated an automated voice, droll and punctual. Seven visages appeared in his peripheral, comms links opened with the other members of his battlegroup and the brothers battlegroup that followed them. Hager and Vino were in focus, as were his compatriots. Othen's gaze drifted to the FTL gates; new Fed arrivals from Honfleur beginning to merge with the present defenders, the detected signals from the gate near Baril getting stronger with every second. Sent to staph the tide. 'Attention. Enemy fleet arrival from Honfleur. Force bolster imminent.' came the voice again, triggered now by his thoughts instead of his crew.
"Vino, we are ETA 2 minutes to ELR combat. Preparing respective weapons, recommend you do the same." he spoke into the visage's link, eyeing a red circle around their forces that edged closer and closer to the Royals with every second. Across his fleet, RKKV buses and casaba howitzer missiles were readied, shunted into launch silos and made ready for full burn. 1 minute. Magnetic and particulate shields were pre-activated and plasma shields primed, multitudes of ships releasing little clouds as hatches opened across the fleet, exposing their charges to vacuum. Othen was there to ensure it, his digital gaze going through every ship as their exteriors changed to suit the need. 30 seconds. The larger ships made an umbrella with the help of the smaller ones, an artillery formation they had drilled for countless times, and their mothballs of spacecraft followed suit as they stuck to their patrons.
0 seconds.
In unison, the fleet opened up, missiles of all sorts rushing outwards from the umbrella in the tens of thousands, turreted weapons across the fleet aiming at prospective targets just teasingly out of range. They arced across the void, aimed at priority targets-carriers, heavy ships, specialty ships and artillery. The mothball did not yet depart, sticking to the safety of point defense ranges, but sooner or later they would act, either out of want or out of need.
9 February 2023
Another monotonous update came through to Vino just as a second missile volley was rocketed off to finish the job on 3rd Battlegroup’s Gate objectives. It was Othen updating him that confrontation between Battlegroup 2 and the main Royalist force was imminent. Reclining into his chair, the Tanilan Admiral exhaled in a brief moment of meditation before simply tapping in a ping confirming the reception of the message before Vino restored his attention to his operations as they progressed.
“All vessels, begin redirection towards the Royalist Fleet. Prime systems and prepare for autonomous command once combat initiates. CEG Escorts begin engagement with Baril’s PDF, do not gamble your landing until all anti-spatial units have been pacified.” The Admiral declared to his array of units appearing almost like a game upon the visual readouts. He watched as the blips spreading outwards and beginning to head towards the Federation Fleet, while the smaller force began to converge on the first of their Federation planetary targets.”
The Anyans, 800 ships strong, were quick to begin their assault on Baril. Their first concern and priority were the orbital PDF forces situated around the haven. First came a transmission by Admiral Tagvah in advance to all identified RF installations:
“Assaulting vessels to Baril defence forces.” The repeatedly focused message bombarded the communiques of the local defence installations, “You are without support and outgunned, demilitarize and accept pacification or you will be destroyed.”
For all sites that failed to announce their acceptance and begin their deactivation, hostility came swiftly after. Anything from small system-based defence ships to orbital platforms were the first targets to be taken down predominantly at range via the CEG’s long-range missile dispatches, which were blasted off sequentially in the thousands from every vessel among the force. The intention was to knock out the outer screen of the planet and limit the PDF to surface-to-space defences, which could be more readily concentrated on as the CEG had closed in more properly.
For the rest of the 3rd Battlegroup, however, Baril was now far behind them. Vino’s course to pincer upon the Federation fleet was, more or less, a bee-line straight towards the epicenter of the Royalist naval armada. This did, however, pass them close to Forger and would give it a period of time in which it could pick away at his forces from the side as he rushed by, if they wished to expend the resources on doing so.
Admiral Sebalfarescani was, however, a lot more worried than his compatriots. Leading his 400 ship force forward, his guerrilla force were under orders to finish off the final two gates in the system. Like Vino, it would take time for him to even come into range of engaging with that objective. It wasn’t the gates that concerned him, however, but rather the unanticipated locationing of Fleet Group Ganymede, which had the potential to intercept his forces if they deemed it important enough to distract themselves with.
“Vino to Othen.” Finally came the 3rd Battlegroup leader’s official remark, “We are en-route to engagement, you will just need to make do without us until we are in range to support. Strength be with you.” The transmission ended.
VMFR Rhongomyniad, Commande Orbit
The paladin let out a sigh.
"Radiological alarms from Exterieur, Anti orbital fortresses are inoperable, they were unable to track the missiles through the debris. Estimating Casualties-" The Paladin said plainly.
"Later, Prepare for incoming fire." Diabella commanded. She didn't want to think about the situation going on there anymore then she had to.
"Baril reports that the gate has been destroyed and defences are overwhelmed." The Paladin said again.
"Reinforcements are delayed at Adalouse, they'll need time to charge FTL."
"The reinforcements from Fortresse Levis are still on route?" Diabella asked.
"Arrival is imminent and will coincide with integration of the Honfleur Fleet." The Paladin replied.
"Then we have a chance." Diabella said.
"Paladin begin counterfire with your defences." Diabella said standing up from her command throne.
"Are target harmonic locked in?" She asked the command deck.
The ship shook violently as the ordinance from the BULO fleet was starting to come through the Defence Net and then a second time this time different.
"Fortresse Levis Fleet group have arrived on our position." The Paladin remarked
"Harmonics locked and shared throughout the fleet Milady." An operator shouted.
"Fire at will! Show these cur the might of the Grand Navy." Diabella commanded.
"Paladin, the time is now. Begin E-war operations." She said more quietly.
"Finally, I can show these base invaders what it means to assault our fortress in the starts."
Now three fleets strong the Federation began returning fire on the advancing enemy. A spectacular lightshow was taking place and unlike the other battles taking place this was far less one sided and for the moment the advantage would lie with the Federation. Missiles screamed across the void by the dozens as Ignum Lances targeted down targets of opportunity, it wasn't long before the trio of Federation Dreadnoughts began the fire their exotic and deadly Higgs Guns. The Paladin meanwhile began work on his E-war campaign. Worms were sent along return signals to invade enemy systems and countermeasures were deployed to confuse and trick the enemy. As he did his work the heat in his data centres only rose to the point where they would be easily distinguished from other space infrastructure.
14 March 2023
The command room rattled subtly, as if an earthquake permeated the hull of the ship. Across the fleet came flashes of light, both from gun and munition as the great exchange began. Alarms rang out across every ship, automated voices drolling from impact warnings to damage controls to simple reminders of duties. Immersed in the command atrium, Othen saw every action, every ship damaged, lost, destroyed. When Vino told him of their delay, and the Federation reinforcements came in, he could only but grimly stay course; by the time they were close enough to come in range of Federation guns, he had accepted the cold truth of the matter as fully as the visor that weighed upon his head-their losses would be heavy, even once Vino and Hager made their rendevous.
4000 ships of the line each performed their own roles as the vacuum was laid bare, the strengths of each nation come to fruition. The Neraguese and Kitunhelm fleets let loose potent artillery, missiles, lasers and long-range cannons that coursed the empty void like fireflies, aimed at targets of interest and dire opportunity. The Sanidans stoically bore the initial brunt, having command of the largest ships of the fleet as plasma and particulate fought against missile and Ignum. The Wesa-Masini fleet focused half on support, half on offense as their guns made chorus with the other ships, and their defensive systems and PD networks ablated what projectiles they could. And his fleet filled in the cracks, dedicated carriers rubbing shoulders with cruisers alike as they continued to unload swarms of voidcraft.
The ICA strike fleet saw fit to surprise Othen, however, as their own support ships engaged offensive EWAR and ECM countermeasures en masse, cones of invisible fire imbibed on the Federation fleets, while a contingent of theirs engaged stealth systems-the Blitzans, the readouts named them-and dived en masse, in the earliest stage of a nascent pincer maneuver. Amongst every fleet, voidcraft squadrons once in mothballs screamed through the void, interspersed between weapons fire and swarming towards the most dangerous game-in particular, the trio of Federation Dreadnoughts belting off their exotic weapons.
He knew it would not be long now before their losses would skyrocket. Already, even in the opening salvos, they had lost not-insignificant amounts of important ships; a Sanidan battleship, two ICA support cruisers, two Neraguese arsenal ships, not counting the damage reports beginning to pile. The urge to flinch was preemptively suppressed when three Higgs Lances ran through their formation, and reports of viral EWAR protocols were beginning to pick up, alongside calls for switching to laserline and tightbeam morse. However, a curio caught his attention, as he ran his eyes across the Federation fleet-thermal signatures, rising in tandem as to be distinguishable even amongst the heat of battle.
"Vino, Hager-our sensors are detecting unusual heat readouts from orbital Fed infrastructure. Likely target of interest-lasing now. Requesting haste in your rendevous, taking losses, fa-" He paused momentarily as the command ship rocked, a far-off explosion blooming through a bridge window he couldn't see. "Fair winds. Over." (edited)
Commande System: Royal Federation Space
Ground forces were reporting surrenders and engagements on the surface of Exteriuer but they now had bigger problems.
The other two forces had engaged the Federations main fleet forces, no matter the BULO numbers they were bound to take heavy losses. The only thing they could do now was move to strike where able.
"I see the target, moving my force to strike infrastructure, abandoning ground operations for now"
Ground forces were quickly recalled across the surface, retreating back to vessels in orbit as the Taskforce Hager commanded lit their drives, a singular target now presenting itself. Commande De Chataeu, its orbital infrastructure displayed phenomenal heat output and while its orbital defences would be heavy Hager knew they needed to strike that foe, especially when their systems started to detect heavy interference and alarms rang out about possible intrusion attempts.
"Cut exterior com connections and switch to ship to ship laserline, any vessel reporting firewall bypasses is to disengage immediately" Already several vessels disengaged, moving away from the battle space as their systems dealt with the cyberwarfare intrusions, infected they were no good in combat.
"Fire long range missile strike, load jam guiding munitions and switch other missiles to laser designation, we rely on Othens guidance"
Across Hagers formation missiles flew out of launchers, some homed in on the jamming sources while others relied on Othens guidance lasing to home in on target, it was at least something to keep the orbital defences busy while they closed the distance.
"I want strike craft to cover us, bombers form up on our right flank, I want you to conduct a single strike on the Royal Federation fleet elements engaging Othen, it is all we can do to help, peel off some of our fighters to escort"
The strike craft wing disengaged from Hagers fleet, a mish mash of the different nations the heavy Khanate bombers made up the core, together they had plenty of anti-capital munitions from AM torpedoes to one shot Tachyon cannons. They aimed to at least assist Othen and do some damage.
20 March 2023
by an on-screen update notifying of their distance, “...We will be entering feasible weapon range imminently but at this distance our support will be limited, you must buy us more time.”
The moment the fleet entered into range the Royalist’s flank, they began to fire whatever they could at such distances, missiles and drones mainly. Many of the older ships held by the multinational fleet were, however, still having their racks reloaded from their stores since their initial onslaughts on the rear worlds of the Federation; the volley was limited and dependent on information that was subject to constant change.
Vino did, however, take the distance to take note of the electronic warfare capabilities employed by the Compact’s enemy. They certainly seemed to work around the use of informational confusion; this was something the Royal Federation had utilized in the past too and Vino had taken note of the Federation’s electronic warfare leaning prior to the operation.
He leant over to his comms,
“Admiral Tagvah, come in.”
The neutral computational warble of the computer responded,
[Admiral Tagvah here. The CEG operations are going as planned.]
“Tagvah, your forces are the most computationally advanced that we have in the compact. I have a feeling we are going to need your capabilities if we’re going to counter their edge in this battle. Can you expedite your mission and join us any quicker?”
[Baril’s defences have been neutralized with minimal resistance here. Forger will be falling soon. Once we’ve escorted their landers planetside we can join you, but our forces will be down on both planets for some time until their scorching of local infrastructure is complete. We would be leaving them undefended.]
Vino waited to think before replying,
“I’ll have Sebalfarescani’s guerrillas turn heels and take over your escort. He should be securing the last gates now. Make haste, Tagvah, you may be central to our effectiveness here.”
[Very well. Piggyback any information your intelligence people collate of their strategem on to me in the meantime, Vino. A bit of homework will do me some good, Tagvah out.]
With that Vino sat back and pinged the new order through to Admiral Sebalfarescani. He watched the first feeds of the sparse and long-ranged 3rd Battlegroup projectiles gliding across the cosmos towards the Royalist’s sides from afar, and as his forces moved closer and closer into effective range on the Federation’s side. (edited)
VMFR Regno, on route to Commande system
It was quiet dimly lit and tense in the CIC of the Regno. High Admiral Lucius De Monarick watched the time update for their arrival. Last minute jump coordinates they received would place them within firing range of one of the BULO Fleets. Under Emergency regulations he had been placed in charge of roughly half of the Federations available warships; Four Fleet groups forming a Sector Armada. He had never commanded such a force before but such a force was unweildy like a hammer to smash through the toughest of stone. The timer ticked down into its final minute, He didn't let the nerves get to him, he couldn't. So much relied on him, he was the reinforcements, the cavalry arriving, there was only him and this force. If they couldn't break the Invaders then the system was lost. He watched it closer now, Five... Four... Three... Two... One.
The Warp bubble burst with an explosion of exotic energy and the Grand Navy of the Federation revealed itself to the BULO in its full glory. They had appeared near forger at the rear of one of the BULO Fleets pressing the flank of Diabellas forces. He made it in time and on position. He shot up from his command throne.
"EXECUTE THE RELIEF PLAN" He ordered.
The Crew in a flurry moved to execute their orders. The Armada was to engage the flanking BULO while a contingent of Destroyers and Frigates supported by Strike craft would move against the elements invading Baril to support ground forces there. The Armada begin moving towards the BULO Flankers and started opening fire with long range weapons, in place of their usual light show of fire the main focus was defence so that the more powerful shorter range weapons could be used more effectively.
VMFR Rhongomyniad, Commande Orbit
There was a cheer in the CIC as the report of the reinforcement fleet came through. It had made the hopeless situation less bleak and it finally gave the Federation a fighting chance. The battle continued to rage around Commande but it didn't seem to be going anywhere. A stalemate that would be broken with the arrival of the BULO fleet around Exterieur even now they sent a vanguard of strike craft to assist their comrades. The Rhongomyniad itself had to withdraw to back of the Federation firing lines after suffering too many direct hits, the rest of the Fleet was rotating itself to keep more intact ships towards the front of the enemy fire. Orbital Defences Platforms and Stations helped offset the damage with better defensive capabilities and firepower but the sheer volume of fire was overwhelming the best defence in the Federation. Automated tugs raced around the chaotic battle stabilising the wrecks of destroyed and disabled ships to prevent their de orbit and caused catastrophic damage on the ground.
"Paladin! E-war update?" Diabella asked.
"They're not as easy I thought they were going to be, some success but not as much as I had hoped even less now." The Paladin said altering the display.
"Missiles have disabled one of my data centres. I have several more in orbit but the loss of each one weakens my ability to fight, Ground based centres lack the space specific apparatus to attack ships." He continued
"Reprioritise the tugs to move the centres into low orbit, keep them covered while they do it." Diabella replied.
"Send the PDF reserve strike groups to intercept the incoming attack wave." She added as the ship shook violently from another impact.
"I want their Triple C ships targeted first. If we can disorganise them we might break this fleet before the next one comes." She ordered.
Commande System: Royal Federation Space
"Sir we have heavy incoming fire, orbital defence batteries and supporting PDF elements are tougher than expected"
"We have no choice but to continue" Hager knew the gravitas of those words, so many more would die because of them. But he was right, the Admiral watched as a wholly new fleet of contacts arrived. More enemy reinforcements, if they could defang Commande before they engaged perhaps, there was a chance they could swing about to meet them and reinforce the line.
Their own long range fire was being met with the Federations own, losses were creeping up with the foe targetting artillery vessels or longer ranged strike platforms. They were being precise.
"Call our longer hitters into tighter formations, cover them with the battleships and keep escorts close to prioritise PD interception. Stagger our volleys, I want wave then wave of shots, overload as much of their own interception as we can"
"Admiral enemy orbital infrastructure is being towed into lower orbits"
"Then ignore it for now, target their defensive installations and PDF elements, make it easier for the Second Strike Group"
---
A bomber exploded as the Angsun interceptor split second dodged a laser bolt aimed for its center mass.
The Federations own attack craft had moved to intercept the relief bomber contingent. The Khanate bombers were tough and took a lot to take down, but without support they were sitting ducks. That was where the Angsun and Winchesix fighters came in. Angsuns own craft were built around being jack of all trades, while the Winchesix interceptors where built for one thing, speed and style. They were inhumanly agile, appearing as if drones but their pilots were very much human enhanced with drugs and more to keep them from dying to the G-forces of piloting.
They met the Federation head on, the Angsun craft keeping with the bombers, providing escort as the bombers own defensive missiles and railguns spat out at the enemy. Winchesix however broke formation instantly, using their speed and agility to try and come around on the flanks of the Federation craft, their pilots calling out over coms their official bond names and declaring challenges to the Federation pilots.
A shock rumbled the ship again, the firing of the spinal battery making the ship groan and shake like clockwork as the battle continued on. Othen now was beginning to worry, as his losses and damage reports piled up like forgotten paperwork. Group Three was being intercepted by reinforcements, Group One was busy with strikecraft interceptions. He knew he could hold, that was his job - how much longer he could hold, that was another matter. Their ships did not rotate as the Feds did, their roles fixed and their positions limited. Already he was losing enough ships to warrant a call 2; Admiral Exthes and the Sanidan were reporting up to 50% total damage accrued, and the other factions were at minimum totalling at 25%, not counting ship losses.
Still, his fleet was never without fangs. Having lased their targets for a prolonged period of time, the artillery ships across his fleet now began to fire missiles at unconventional angles, arcing above, below and to the sides of the battlefield as to strike where the Federation couldn't reach in time. The ICA element that had gone into stealth had reached the apex of their arc, and as Othen could see it was aimed square at the largest group of targets in the enemy fleet. And, as the Federation dedicated their strikecraft to the left of the battlefield, the swarms deployed by his own battlegroup saw a hole to be filled. As his carriers worked overtime to exhaust their capacities, bombers, interceptors and escort fighters alike poured from his ships into a second wave, making a slight pincer to the right of the battlespace as they aimed to take advantage of the mixed assault.
He could only hope, now, that the rest would be able to succour his assault.
"Othen to Hager, Vino. Appreciate all the help we can get, but we need more and fast." He intoned grimly, watching an Ignum lance tear into an ICA frigate. "Adding heavy targets to our lasing systems. Triple, double B's, carriers, they're the heaviest hitters." (edited)
Vino was notified of the Federate reinforcements almost instantaneously. If he wasn’t alerted by his own readouts, he was by the thousand or so updates from the ships of his fleet all informing him of the same obvious development. This wasn’t good.
Already a handful of ships were struck or disabled by the first incoming projectiles before the fleet could begin to more effectively account for the new attack direction.
Despite now being caught in a sandwich, Vino still remained calm. The room helped him to keep a distant attitude to it all. For several moments he stayed idle; thinking in silence as more messages pinged through. Finally he leant forth and opened up his comms to the fleet.
“All units, push forward to our planned target. We’ll close our distance with the Battlegroup 2 and get close and personal with them. Let their reinforcements chase us… Our current course should keep them at a distance, for now.”
The battlegroup refused to be locked down by De Monarick and now instead was barreling at full throttle straight towards Commande de Chateau. They stopped at nothing and, as each weapon type came into range, be it laser, coilgun or plasma, the hodgepodge fleet of a hundred ship types began to unleash their turret fire and fighter clouds alike.
With the arrival of the new Federation fleet, the planned switch between Sebalfarescani’s irregulars and Tagvah’s contingent was obstructed: A Royal Federation fleet now stood between them. Instead, Sebalfarescani now moved to flank and trace De Monarick’s forces from the side and glance them with long-range harassment fire from their side.
Now unable to meet and unify with Vino. Admiral Tagvah and his advanced forces now instead pulled back and moved to intercept the Royal Federation’s relief force headed to Baril. Tagvah was well aware that he was now the only force left in this side of the system and was, effectively, isolated by the Federate arrival forces. His goal was to rush into the enemy forces and engage in a close-range, decisive engagement that could break off the Federation’s approach before additional relief could be brought to the site.
19 April 2023
Commande Orbit
A wave of missiles approached the VMFR Rhongomyniad and as routine as it had become now they were opened up on by supporting ships and the Flagship itself. This time however there was a gap, as damage and losses piled up on the Federation forces defending the planet this gap proved to be devastating. A hand full of missiles struck the ship near its main guns but by luck they damaged the containment field of the insidious higgs particles. The resulting breach let loose a beam the spread from the ships dorsal side to its ventral side. Cutting the monster in two, it began its death spiral towards the planet, flipping end over end. The crew were stuck onboard as any ejected life boats would be caught in the beast path.
Before communications were lost with the Rhongomyniad, Diabella gave one last order to the fleet; "Retreat"
High Admiral Lucius received the order and began pushing the flanking group of BULO harder to distract them enough so that the few defenders left could retreat. What once encompassed nearly half the Federation Navy in the Region was now not even a battle groups strength of battered hulls. They Paladin used the last of the Orbital Defences strength to assist in their evacuation.
Soon the planet would be open to invasion with High Orbit nearly secured low orbit was vulnerable. A vast planetary ring called the "Silver Crown" was the prized Federation shipyards for the region, home to millions and a sizable chunk of the Federation Industrial shipbuilding capacity. What few ships were docked for repairs or refit were hurriedly trying escape their berths. Undermanned, under equipped they would be easy pickings for the BULO forces.
The ship shook violently as its came into contact with the atmosphere of the planet, Diabella held tightly onto her command throne. The harness keeping her upright as the planets gravity took over from the ship artificial gravity.
"Hull temperature increasing."
"Trajectory calculations complete we'll crash somewhere in the Aguste's Wilds near one of our fortresses."
Diabella listened to the crew do their jobs professionally despite the circumstances.
"Firing all thrusters... now" Argo sythetic voice said.
With a jolt the ship stop spinning manically and seemed to level out. Argo then began counting down the time to impact.
Fort Federasia, Commande surface
Lord General Leonello could only watch on the sensor feed the descent of the Rhongomyniad, He had served many years on that ship as the head of the army contingent for Diabellas forces in the last three wars. It saddened him to see it go but he was more concerned for his friend. His estimates would have the ship surviving mostly intact but he couldn't leave Diabella to fend for herself. He had already ordered a relief force to intercept the crash site and begin evacuating survivors. He couldn't spend more time watching now, he had a planet to defend. Already more troops were arriving from Adalouse with the planet side FTL gate, trains brought soldiers and equipment in and were taking civilians out, but with only one gate on the planet civilian evacuation was the lowest priority.
Incandescent light filled the room briefly before the windows tinted themselves as the Anti Orbital guns began to fire on the encroaching fleet.
24 April 2023
Commande System: Royal Federation Space
"I read you Othen, recalibrating spinals and long range strikes now. All guns target those heavy units, ignore the orbital positions send two volleys their way then switch back to orbitals. Give those Federation bastards something to think about, we will clip them in the flank"
The whole of Hagers formation seemed to shift, momentarily firing their RCS to orient the fleet side on to their momentum. Main engines cut out as the fleet precisely timed their fire. The first barrage was away the moment they orientated correctly, then there was a pause of nearly 30 seconds as they waited for heavier spinal elements to reload and recharge. The moment all guns showed green they fired a second volley, RCS swung the ships around again to their forward motion and once more main drives lit up across the fleet. Locked back on target they focused the RF Orbital positions, more ships from their force being either forced to disengage or being totally destroyed by the long range volleys.
"Sir, Admiral Vino appears to be moving to our current target and is letting the enemy reinforcements chase him"
"Understood, tell them to hit orbital elements on the other side of the planet and together we can hopefully smash this world and its infrastructure. With any luck it will be a crippling blow. Then we can rendezvous and support one another"
"Sir! The VMFR Rhongomyniad has been destroyed!" The call out brought a cheer across the bridge as Hager smiled. An enemy flagship taken out of action... How very well done.
"Enemy forces appear to be pulling back somewhat"
"So we have some breathing room. Continue hitting orbital infrastructure and do not let those ships fleeing the ring escape unless they are civilian. When we enter near orbit prep forces for orbit to ground precision bombardment"
He didn't want even more hatred as a result from this battle.
As the Federation began to pull back, Othen silently sighed in relief. Though his heart panged for Vino as he watched him make full burn towards the Commande De Chateau, the once-fleet that defended the stronghold had broken and given them the opening they finally needed. Faintly, he heard cheering from the crew outside of his immurement, as the confirmation of the Rhongomyniad's de-orbiting reached their ears. A boost for morale, one sorely needed-but congratulations could come later. Now was the time of action, lest the reinforcements from abroad bring that number ever higher.
He eyed his fleet for a moment, surveying the damage through impersonal holograms before he dared to act. It was grim - 50% damage in total accrued across every fleet. up to 20% in losses. The Sanidans the heaviest hit, their carriers almost depleted in full, and most ships suffering atleast some form of scarring if not major damage. But it was less than it normally would have been otherwise, and for Hager and Vino's efforts he was truly thankful. The visages of his admirals popped up alongside him on his request, expressions made steely with the loss of men and machine.
"Their assault is broken. Shall we proceed with other targets?" now spoke Vathador, the Neraguese ships lasing new targets even in absence of speech. After a moment of chastising himself for his reflections, he spoke again.
"Yes, we have an opening, we need to take it. Target the orbital infrastructure. Silver Crown and data centers are top priority, alongside any immediate targets of interest."
"The ships?" queried Danaan, the ships of Wesa-Masini still disgorging craft.
"We leave them. Tell the ICA ships in the stealth maneuver to target any remaining triple-Bs or ships in drydock, otherwise disregard. We can't waste resources."
"And the outgoings? What of them?" queried Exthes, as the Sanidan ships established readings on the various ships in the 'trains' that began to ebb to and fro the Crown.
"...leave them." He noted after a moment, eyes flitting between the planet and the Crown. "Their efforts are for naught anyways."
"What do we do with the planet after the Crown? Invade, or glass?" now asked Kvorden, whose gaze remained particulate upon the crash site of the Rhongomyniad. It was worthy of pondering, and Othen could find no answer even with a moment's pause.
"...I don't know." He admitted frankly. "I'll request input from the others. Until then, keep your fire controlled and focused."
A series of nods, and then they all blipped away.
His fleet now moved as one, RCS thrusters diverting them sideways towards Hager's fleet, as they and their strikecraft began to focus fire on the Silver Crown, and upon any infrastructure that remained in space. Additionally, the ICA ship squadron that positioned itself to ambush now struck fully, emerging from stealth and rocketing upwards to attack any targets of priority they could find, whether it was the ships that lay in docks, any stragglers that had yet to proceed with the retreat, or simply to aid in the grand attack that had now commenced fleetwide. From Othen's ship to the two other battlegroups came a simple query, yet one that would be key to the climax of this operation.
"Vino, Hager. Your help is much appreciated. My command staff are asking me this-do we invade the Chateau, or do we commence bombardment?"
Even as Lucius pressed forth the assault, Vino tried to continue accelerating upon the throttled forces at Commande with continued volley after volley of weapons fire. It quickly became apparent that this was no longer tenable.
While the update on the neutralization of the enemy’s flagship was a welcome sign, ships were now dropping by the dozen. The battlegroup’s exposed rear was receiving increasingly frequent shots that were beginning to scale up in their rate of puncture through AD bubbles. Hundreds were now either being rendered vulnerable from spent defences or were crippled and left floating in dead space with struck thrusters. Unable to ignore the flank of the flankers any longer, Vino gave the order to turn the formation around. His flank had been stalled.
At once the swarm of vessels began to maneuver left and right; splitting in two like a shoal of fish as they cycled around to meet the High Admiral’s fleet face to face with the full weight of their defences and armaments. It gave the Royal Federation withdrawal breathing room, but Vino’s concern was now to become a blocker to prevent the retreating forces from merging with Lucius. The goal was now to maintain a wall and keep the forces broken in two, and more importantly to now stall the reinforcing units. With no hesitation, Vino’s fleet began to return fire upon Lucius’ forces, who up until now had gone effectively unassailed.
“Vino here.” He emitted an update, “My advance has been curtailed. There’s a risk my battlegroup’ll be broken from behind. I’m holding position.”
The Compactist gripped to his chair with subtle frustration at the precarious position of his forces as he watched the enemy move on either side of him.
VMFR Regno, Commande System
Lucius winced as his flagship was now taking fire from the third group of BULO Forces. They had expertly reversed direction and were now bearing down on his force. The remainder of Diabella's force had managed to escape the battle zone and Forces she was fighting now had orbital control of Commande. He would follow the last order from the Lady Admiral and began to move his fleet back towards Baril to evacuate as many supplies, equipment and weapons as possible before the system was lost to them. The relief force was already engaging the BULO invaders at long range but with their high speed they were closing the gap for a close range assault while Federation Marines prepared to drop on the surface.
In orbit the defenceless Silver Ring took impact after impact from the BULO forces manufactories, housing blocs, ships yards everything was being hit. Tethers to the space elevators snapped and buckled and explosive chain reactions ruptured across the factory districts and explosive decompression blew out districts all over. Automated tugs and repair drones moved to fix the damage only to be destroyed in the destruction, as the last data centre was destroyed in orbit the drones just stopped with no network connection they simply drifted in the direction they were already going. Hundreds of thousands were dying by the minute as the Silver ring began to break apart and begin collapsing towards the planet.
VMFR Rhongomyniad crash site
Diabella watched through the smoky haze as the command centre doors were pried open by the rescue team. She wanted to shout out to them but she couldn't move, everything hurt. The team got closer, there were dozens of them now entering the command centre. One noticed her and immediately ran over to her and started checking her over.
"Vitals are stable, Likely concussion and shock, get the ship down here the Lady leaves first." The voice said behind a respirator.
The rest of the journey was a broken haze as she was transported away. Her thoughts dwelling on her ship, crew and beloved. The teams searched high and low across what remained of the ship and rescued a mere few hundred from the normal thousands strong crew needed to run the behemoth.
Fort Federasia, Commande surface
Leonello watched as the dropship descended down the tunnel to the underground hanger. Diabella was onboard and would be back on Adalouse in no time. In the mean time he had a difficult choice to make. The shy was alight with the destruction of the ring, it was daytime but its fiery death was visible to all. It was long before debris started to rain down on the planet, in the distance he could see one of the space elevator tethers break away and collapse towards the ocean. Untold devastation was unfolding across the planet. Leonello had been quick to order evacuations across the planet but the vast distance between some of the cities and the only mean off world would bottleneck the effort extensively.
Hager watched the Silver Ring buckle from the impacts, before finally breaking and shattering in places.
"So much devastation"
He questioned whether they would even have to bombard the planet, the impacts from the Ring alone would likely wipe out the planets eco system and kill untold numbers from the immediate and long term effects.
"This is Hager to Vino and Othen. I believe we let the planet evacuate, the destruction of the ring will cause massive destruction planet wide, far more than we could hope to cause with our forces or fleets. The best thing we can do for ourselves, for the Compact and for the civilians is to pull back from Commande de Chateau and let them evacuate as many as they can. Its lost capability as a target, I already read drone shut downs across the RF forces. Their fleets are mostly withdrawing. Vino, meet up with my fleet, enact whatever repairs and resupply you can. Othen do the same, my force has had the least direct combat, let us handle any reinforcements or reprise attacks. Perhaps any key military installations not destroyed by the ring can be seized by us."
The message was sent over the BULO command net.
It was then Hager spoke to wide beam system broadcast.
"This is Admiral Hager of the BULO Compact. We are giving you space to evacuate Commande De Chataeu of as many lives as possible. Your main command network is broken and your flagship destroyed. I ask for the remaining forces in system to surrender where you will be treated under the BULO convention of war. This battle need not continue, more lives do not need to be lost. Please make the right choice."
The Admiral leant back into his seat.
"Do you think they will surrender?" One of the crew asked. Hager shrugged.
"I don't know. I hope they do, but they are a proud people"
Isolated in his pale-white pocket of tranquility, Vino didn’t see any of the visual devastation being brought down upon Commande and the Silver Ring. All he could see were text-based notifications and updates evaluating the damage readouts. The communique from Hager, once more in a roboticized, text-based manner to ensure calm and distance, therefore left Vino a little perplexed. To him, the opportunity was wide open to hammer home the advantage; not to give the enemy an opportunity to stall and reconsolidate their strength.
“Admiral Hager, may the 3rd Battlegroup remind you we have men still on Baril now under assault from the Royal Federation relief force. My battlegroup is still in direct engagement with the Federation reinforcements. I recommend your forces rendezvous with me, not vise-versa.” He had the AI translate his message into a monotonous, synthesized form and pinged it off to his operational superior.
Sitting and grunting each time he watched as, one by one, the third battlegroup’s ship signatures stopped responding and disappeared from the starmap, Vino awaited his response in their skirmish with Lucias. The depletion of many ADS/PDS weapons for many of the ships, now including parts of Vino’s own flagship, was becoming a notable problem that was forcing some of his ships to withdraw away from the combat zone entirely for lack of meaningful defensive capabilities.
One of his screens bleeped as the Federation forces honed in on Baril and its stranded forces. He could only hope that they and Tagvah could repulse the attack or, at the very least, hold out.
Tagvah himself, with his advanced force, continued to barrel towards the relief contingent, but they were not soon enough. The first waves of Royalist forces had already landed long before the Anyans had fallen upon the relief escorts. Once the distance was closed, though, the Anyans didn’t stop to maintain formation, despite the fire and crippled vessels they were taking on along the way. They continued forward to puncture the relief force entirely and force the two formations into disarray and leave the maneuvers down to individual ships targeting one and other. There was no illusion to Tagvah, the squadron was going to come out bloody no matter whether they were victorious or not, but breaking the royalist’s fleet supremacy in the region was the most important goal at that point.
Elsewhere, the 200 Skirmish ships under the Admiral Sebalfarescani, that to this point had been taking pot shots at a safe distance to Lucius’ rear, were now rushing to supplement and bolster Tagvah’s own group. Being the only compact force in that side of the system not split off by the Royalist fleet, Vino had ordered them to unite with the Anyans.
Down on Baril itself, the CEG occupation forces under Field Commander Senecaral had barely had the time to consolidate. They had received advanced word of the coming assault and amassed at Royalist military installations and hastily formed field centers out in unsuspecting locations. They lacked any significant anti-orbital capabilities, largely owing to them not being supplied to hold the planets, only to take them. What surface-to-sky defenses they did possess were limited to the atmosphere and, as such, the CEG was dependent on alien and mostly-sabotaged installations apprehended from the Royalist garrison.
What they lacked in anti-spaceship weaponry they at least could make up for, to an extent, with equipment like self-propelled AA and SAM systems. Having amassed largely into the polar regions of the planet, the compact defence had abandoned much of the equatorial regions and instead formed up strongpoints in more concentrated regions from which they targeted any landing craft in range they could. Some holdouts were entrenched out in the most obscure, mountainous spots. Others had taken up hold in logistical and strategic nexus’ and settlements.
Despite their concentration of forces, the fact was that this was an occupation force on a hostile planet, which had only taken their regions a short while before, who were now having to fight in an operational situation they had not been equipped to handle. Their primary aim was, therefore, to buy for time, maintain a decentralized and obscure command network, and to avoid being forced into engagements whenever possible.
Sealed inside his VR tacticianscape, Othen saw not the planet churn and boil under the hail of reentry from the Ring's growing count of debris. Holograms in simplified form showed it breaking up, polygons into polygons into more polygons as they recursed and fell inwards to the planet it was once host to. The faint rumble of thruster burns and the shake of cannon fire rocked the ship, providing percussion to their impacts upon the ailing, now failing megastructure. For a moment, he bid the visor lift, giving him full view through his bridge of the world as it began to burn and shower with molten metal. A grim sight, and a reminder of what truly went on behind that visor of his - one truncated by the tool swiftly returning to his head and the voice of Hager playing in his ear.
Hagers' transmission, when it reached Othen, gave him much the same concerns. Not for himself, but for Vino, locked in combat twicefold over Baril and near their trifecta. However, his ships were not as battered nor depleted, though to say they had taken losses was an understatement. Percentages lined his peripheral, grim in their high counts - 65% in damages, 34% in losses. Every ship in his fleet bore scorch marks and entry wounds, some more grievous than others, and the mothball that had been disgorged from his carriers had returned less than half of what it had been. Ammunition was running low on some of the smaller ships, and if their PD depleted they'd be sitting ducks for whatever they faced in combat next.
"Hager, Vino." He stated after a moment, stroking his chin. "My fleet will attempt to rendezvous with Hager's for resupply, if you plan to move to assist Vino. If we can consolidate at Baril, then seizing whatever's left will be made much easier." He paused, staring at the relief fleet over Baril. "Especially if they don't surrender."
His fleet began to move, on a tentative predicted arc intercepting Hager's fleet if it were to link with Vino's instead of vice versa. Their movement was slower, awaiting confirmation from the other two for their response.
Fort Federasia, Commande Surface
The call to surrender came in over an open channel, firstly he couldn't believe himself to be in such a position to be offered surrender. Enemies normally just wanted him dead or worse, or he was used to the one offering an end to the fighting. Secondly he couldn't believe that he himself was considering such an act. He wanted to escort the civilians off world sure and make sure his men made it home safe but something felt wrong about all of this and after watching the Silver Ring break apart and wreak devastation across the planet he couldn't bring himself to willingly consign himself let alone his men to these monsters. He had one last gambit to play to end the battle, a final play that wouldn't see the Federation Victorious but would see the BULO retreat with tail between their legs. He looked around to his command staff.
"Get me a line to everyone in the system, open broadcast and when I give the signal. Drop planetary Interdiction generators." He ordered his staff and they raced to set up the broadcast.
"Attention all BULO Compact forces in the system. This is Lord General Leonello of the Federation Army. I humbly reject your petition to a surrender and instead offer you the chance to retreat." He said plainly giving a nod to his staff.
"As your operators will inform you momentarily, we have just deactivated the planetary Interdiction network. You have five hours to leave sovereign Federation Space. As I speak our fair Duchess has just given authorisation to use Merveilleuse. Our ultimate weapon, failure to comply will see all your forces here destroyed and we will have all died together. I leave the decision up to you."
VMFR Regno, Commande System
Lucius listened to Leonello's message and looked to his command staff in horror. Although Merveilleuse was a powerful weapon its was also indiscriminate especially against friendly Federation forces too close to the enemy like Lucius's Forces were. The public didn't know about this titbit of information but people brought back from the two day war told of Longinius and Merveilleuse killing all with not differentiation between friend or foe.
"He can't be serious!" Lucius said to himself in disbelief
"HE CANNOT BE SERIOUS!" He shouted now.
"Tell our forces on Baril to grab anything they can in the next three hours, whatever they can't take we will destroy! I do not want to be within a lightyear of the system by the time it fires." He exclaimed.
"NOW" He shouted to the docile looking command staff.
On Baril Federation Marines reinforced hardpoints around depots, warehouses, hangers and anything containing military supplies. Heavy lifters would begin a routine pattern under heavy escort to land at these location and bring supplies back into orbit to the victorious relief fleet. Now moving to mop up the stragglers of the would be invaders the relief force was soon to be joined by the main Federation Fleet which was closely tailed by one of the main BULO task forces. Despite an early advantage against the force the match up was still more then even between the two Armadas, the balance decided by whether the other BULO Forces joined the fray.
Of course. Vino was right.
They couldnt let the forces on Baril fall.
"Understood, I will move to Baril for full support-"
He was cut as the open line reply from the Federation came through. His face taking on a grave aspect. So they wouldnt surrender for their own forces benefit, and were now preparing to use their superweapon. Typical, Hager wished dearly they had taken his offer.
"All ships commence precision bombardment on Commande De Chateau. We will then rendevouz with Vinos 3rd Task force and reinforce Baril."
"Sir what about the super weapon?"
"We always knew it was an option for them to use, if we keep our interdiction up at maximum power it means we can get entire minutes of time to evade its wrath. If we let the threat of its strike be omnipresent then we simply cannot win this war."
The crew seemed to accept the reply for now as Hagers fleet began to accelerate to meet up with Vino. Across the fleet missiles and other bombardment munitions were launched into stable orbits, each one calculated to strike a prescise target as they orbited above, as each got line of sight it deorbited, trying to impact and destroy command and control systems, weapon sites, military bases and more. They would not leave the world with its fangs still.
"Vino, Othen, this is Hager. I am now on course to you, keep interdiction up it will give us a chance against the incoming super weapon. If we are to die to it then let our people at home use it to triangulate its firing location, we cannot let the fear of it destroy our position in this war. Once at Baril we can spread out forces, Any further ideas?"
The impetuous disregard for Hager’s own life threw Vino back a little. But the do-or-die sentiment was sound. There was no going back now. The Compact had come here on the basis that the Royal Federation was turning into a regional, perhaps galactic, threat as more time progressed; withdrawing now would only make their chances all the more dire. They had committed.
Squinting with frustration at the Royalist’s messages, Vino watched as his fleet and that of Lucius continued to trade fire as they loomed ever closer and the casualty rate increased ever higher. Reclining back in his chair, the Admiral of the 3rd Battlegroup watched from the solitude of his bubbled office at the strategic theater. It seemed like the system was on the verge of being withered down from its last remaining strategic components; all they had to do was fight on a little longer. Unfortunately, with his active defence systems wearing out, gaps were forming and growing larger and larger among his own ranks.
He leant in and pinged a message back to Hager.
“Hager, Vino here. Our munitions are beginning to deplete. If new enemy forces arrive soon my forces won’t be of much more use to anyone. I’m advancing against the enemy’s lines to spearhead for Baril to ensure escorts of our withdrawals.” He informed them before terminating his transmission.
This would be the last transmission by Vino.
With his forces ever advancing to puncture the Royalist lines and his supplies now unstable, Vino was hit. A single strike from one of Lucius’ ships, likely a small escort, broke through his command sphere’s defensive array and instantly punctured the forward bow of the flagship. Almost in an instant, the vessel began to blast outwards in sequential explosions from forward to back. What remained of the former flagship of the Tanilan Home Fleet was sent flying like projectiles in all directions; there was little time for evacuation and certainly no time for mitigation.
Vino was gone with neither fanfare or climax. Another unceremonious loss in chaos and carnage of the battle.
In an instant, the 3rd Battlegroup’s vessels began to spiral and fluctuate like confused sardines in a shoal as each Admiral began taking emergency control of their respective sections. The battlegroup was rendered paralyzed from action until the individual member fleets coagulated their units back into their local commands, or until someone else took authority.
Field Commander Senecaral down on Baril, meanwhile, only made limited attempts to curtail the Royal Federation’s efforts to evacuate what supplies they could retrieve from the planet: A SAM missile striking supply carriers here, a raid on an armoury there. For the most part, however, Senecaral’s forces were much more determined in holding their established fortifications and destroying what they could of Royalist infrastructure in those zones, most notably warehouses and PD Installations.
Overhead, Tagvah’s naval force had now smashed into the Royalist forces and the battle for orbital supremacy had virtually become a dogfight of thousands of ships. While the arrival of Sebalfarescani’s ships helped to even the battle a little, it was becoming clear that this battle would be a pyrrhic victory at best unless more support arrived.
Othen's fleet continued to move, the dots on the map updating as if undercranked as Othen silently sighed. Eyes flitted over readouts, munitions graphs, damage reports each surrounding him like a crowd of flies. His neared Hager's, Hager's neared his, both nearing Vino. The enemy lay mostly broken
Their operation, seemingly, had begun it's natural conclusion.
The Federation transmission had changed that notion.
He bit his tongue, the taste of iron invading his sensory deprivation like a bullet.
Of course - why wouldn't they? No willing Fed would pass the chance to rage, scream against the night, the fact none of the three seemed to anticipate it was a hole in their intuition. Still, he couldn't help but feel... almost insulted. Would he rather condemn his men to hell alive than suffer some month in captivity, or some years of disgrace? Were it any other, they would have been given no such luxury, yet when presented they throw it aside like common trash. He told himself it was a bluff. A sick, sinking feeling beginning to take root in his gut told him otherwise and forcing his complexion to turn grave.
As Hager's forces began to move into bombardment positions, he resolved their next course of action.
"Vino, Hager. My forces will provide supporting bombardment coverage, but I will prioritize rendevousing with Vino. I cannot guarantee precis-"
He cut himself off, not from injury to ship nor broadcast termination, but to a readout and event unfolding that, once caught in his eye, momentarily made him falter. Vino, being sniped like a gopher, and his forces scattering like snowflakes. The broadcast never ending, Hager could hear Othen curse once and only, in a drawn out and harsh breath that only came after the tenuous, strung silence.
"...fffuck. Hager, change of plan. I'm going to try rallying Vino's forces, you focus on key targets planetside. We cannot be losing cohesion. Othen out."
His fleet engaged afterburners as a punctuation, Vino half-frantically assigning each of his admirals their assigned 'groups' pre-emptively as they began their approach. Guns began to line up on targets from afar, as they prepared to cover the scattered and disparate fleet elements, and a transmission raced like a messenger dove towards them from Othen's command ship - providing a key target, if any Federation ships were able to single out the signal source.
"Attention, attention. This is Othen. I can take emergency control of your respective battlegroups. We will cover you. Respond when received."
VMFR Regno, Baril Orbit, Commande system
Cheers filled the Command Centre as sensors registered the destruction of the enemy Flag ship. It seemed to act as a command and control network for their fleet and such threw them into disarray. There was finally some breathing room as the BULO Force raced to reorganise itself.
"Focus fire on any ship with increased comms traffic, Don't let them regroup easily." Lucius commanded happily.
The main Federation Fleet continued its defensive action at Baril while it awaited the conclusion of ground operations. Several depots and warehouses had simply been bombed via artillery bombardment or air strike, their destruction total to leave nothing for the enemy. Where the Federation Marines were having success they were evacuating as many assets as they could; Tanks, APCs, IFVs, Trucks, Weapons, Power Armour. Anything and everything they would need to fight a prolonged ground war. An unfortunate side effect of this operration was the alck of civilian resuce and evacuation. At the safer sites crowds were beginning to form as thousands of civilians desperate to get off world encroached on the Federation Landing Zones. Some areas stayed true to their orders as rolled out vehicles or heavily armoured troops to intimidate the civilians while other sites allowed them to leave. The confusion the compassion of some commanders caused would result in their reprimand after the battle.
Fort Federasia, Commande Surface
"Radiological Alarms!" Someone shouted.
"Here it comes, prepare counter measures." Leonello ordered
Suddenly the screens in the command centre flickered and died, Leonello's stomach dropped for a second and then suddenly everything came back to life. In the central display of the command centre the Paladin appeared, his avatar was beaten and bloodied. A slight dramatization on the AIs part.
"I've assumed control of orbital weapons and countermeasures. I'm enabling the Fortress shield now." The AI said stoically.
Overhead outside a beam reached into the sky and began spreading around the Fort as several small beams began activating. The first wave of incoming munitions were targeted and destroed with ease now that the Paladin was back in action. Fort Federasia would be able to hold out for a time but other smaller Orbital Fortresses around the planet would be overhwlmed either due to the sheer volume of missiles or damage caused by the Destruction of the Silver Ring. Reports flooded of Bases and Fortress alike being consumed by nuclear fire. Leonello could only hope that his own defences would hold long enough for the evacuation. Although with the destruction of several Forts the incoming civilians from the underground Mag Lev would slow down as part of the network were destroyed blocking all traffic.
"Paladin, how long can you hold the line?" Leonello asked the AI solemnly.
"Not forever, Key parts of the Defence Network were destroyed by the collapse of the Silver Ring. It was over before it started it seems. I can offer no estimates Lord General, I recommend Evacuation of everyone and anyone you can." The Paladin responded bluntly.
"Keep counter measures up and continue firing at enemy ships in orbit, make them regret every missile they stop to launch. Begin evacuating non essential military personnel"
"Understood Vino. Good luck"
Just moments after that sentence. Vino was gone.
Hager didnt even fully register it, as he watched the damage report from Vinos fleet and the flagship being destroyed. Surely he could not die so quickly without his work undone?
The threat of the super weapon destroying them did not give Hager fear, but seeing one of his good comrades who he had risen through the ranks with die, suddenly and without any warning had shaken him. It took him several moments to actually understand Othens statement.
"I-I understand Othen. Bring those men and women back from the brink, ill do what I can"
"Sir we are receiving more fire, Baril defending RF elements appear to be targetting our ship"
"Cutting the head to kill the body..." Hager scowled "Smart. But lets give them a choice. Target major military installations on Baril, none close to Senecals location we want him rescued, and wipe them out"
"Sir, some of those are on top of civilian centers"
Hager paused, feeling the bridge crew turn towards him. He had been careful so far. He hesitated, but the thought of Vinos death made him nod.
"Then this will show the Royalists not to confuse the two. We cannot leave them with fangs to use against us, try to keep devastation light but ensure those military bases are wiped out"
The taskforce launched a full bombardment spread towards the planet, forcing the RF defending fleet to either engage Hagers force directly or protect their own world. Fire was directed towards the RF defenders too, BULO vessels detonating as fire came in to strike critical ships. Hager was gambling, either way the RF would suffer.
It was chaos amongst the ranks of the Third Battlegroup. Ships zipped to and fro in no particular doctrinal fashion as they rushed to reform into their smaller units. All the while, the Royal Federation were taking the opportunity to flake off the already defensively depleted Bulo forces. The reorganisation left escorts moving without ships to protect, and capital ships without proper units to complement their flanks. Two unit command ships belonging to the Tangasine and Angfar had also been put out of action as they attempted to recoup their forces. Dozens of ships had been knocked out of the battle by the time that they had restored their cohesion under the command of Othen.
For a brief while, the ships turned and began moving away from the Royalists; hastening their approach to the security of the larger battlegroups. Once they had reached the screen of Othen’s lines, each fleet falled in under his command. The broken Third Battlegroup had been absorbed to form a much larger armada under Othen.
Senecaral’s defence on Baril continued as planned, with the sabotage and destruction of what logistical infrastructure they could. Now, however, the units were notably beginning to reduce the spread of their forces into smaller, and more centralised groups centered around areas that were relatively accessible for an extraction. The Field Commander was ensuring that, once the main force arrived, the ground unit’s retreat would be brief; fighting on the planet over strategic locations was winding down.
Othen's fleet merged with Vino's like water, and it couldn't have been soon enough. Already two of their admirals were out of action, lost in the confusion along with a plethora from every fleet before cohesion had been restored. At the very least, they were alive; bereft of ammunition, supply and repair, but alive. Othen's mental commands went out like clockwork, the more able-bodied ships disgorging precious supplies to those most in need.
"Hager." His voice was terse and strained, mental uplink half-overloaded from the sudden strain of recohesing Vino's forces. "Vino group confirmed code yellow. Rendevousing at Baril. Continuing-"
His ship without warning shook like an earthquake, a rumble heard even through his sensory deprivation. His blood ran cold as the holofeed flickered, and a damage readout confirmed his fears; the command ship had been hit critically. Midsection, ammo cookoff. Hangars unusable. Thousands dead, more injured. Iron invaded his mouth again.
"I'm hit...!" He said, radio fluctuations turning his voice crackly and distorted. "Still combat capable. Regrouping... regrouping with you." He paused, uplinks from Group 3 giving readouts of Senecaral's situation. "Baril. We have to hurry."
His fleet, now bloated with their charges, began a full burn to Baril on intercept with Hager's fleet, though they offered supporting fire to Hager as missiles and shells flew across the void like false starlight. Hager was beginning to feel a cruel pressure, both from his uplink and the devolving situation. Their reserves, though inflated for their direct combat role, were beginning to dwindle. Their defenses were being pushed to the limit, maybe then some. And the Federation had managed to reactivate part of their defense network, on top of activating a red code from their superweapon.
Only one resolution had cemented in his head; they needed to end this, and as quickly as they could.
VMFR Regno, Baril Orbit, Commande system
"Admiral, ground forces have almost finished evacuation. The last of the dropships have been dispatched now."
"Enemy reformation confirmed, incoming-"
The ship shuttered violently as the now reorganised and reinforced enemy fleet began their assault once more. It was more then what he could handle with his battered fleet, no ship had been left unharmed and the strength of his force was beginning to wane.
"Alert the fleet and take us out of orbit, best speed to the systems edge." Lucius ordered.
"Admiral, what about our ground forces?" The army liaison shouted.
"If we wait any longer that fleet will close and we'll be caught in the Merveilleuse fire." Lucius retorted.
The man finding that answer lacklustre moved to the command console next to the Admiral.
"Admiral, we can't leave all those men down there for the enemy." He continued and Lucius gave no answer.
"Dammit, you leaving them to die!" The man slammed his fist down and cracked the screen, causing the hologram to flicker.
Lucius turned on the man and grabbed him by his colar with both hands.
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT! You think I make this choice lightly, No but someone has to get us out of this mess!" Lucius shouted throwing the man backwards where he fell to the ground.
"Get back to your station, helm move us out of orbit. Now!" Lucius commanded.
The last wave of dropships hit the atmosphere as the word came through to them, they would have to bare the bad news to the troops still holding on. These rear guard troops drew the short straw, but they wouldn't throw their lives away meaninglessly if the enemy launched a counter attack. They finished the mission and scuttled anything that could be of use to the enemy and they threw down their arms and raised flags of surrender pre-emptively. The Fleet under Lucius returned little of the enemies fire as most of the fleets power went to defences and engines as they made best speed towards the systems edge. A sour taste in the mouths of everyone involved.
Fort Federasia, Commande surface
Leonello watched the mushroom clouds forming in the distance along the horizon, a terrible fate had just beholden one of the larger cities on the planet. Across the globe several fortress were wiped off the map in similar fashion as the anti missile system was overwhelmed and destroyed piece meal by the massive bombardment. This was the end, he knew it. There was only one choice now, to escape before the nuclear fire consumed Fort Federasia, it would last longer then most thanks to the Paladin but not forever.
"Its time to go." Leonello said to the command staff. They stopped and looked at him.
"There's no more trains inbound, we're all that's left. Its time to leave." He continued walking to the base PA system.
"Attention all personnel, begin evacuation. We're finished, It's finished. We did our duty well this day and we will return. Now get moving." He said sadly.
Claxons sounded as the base personnel began moving to the sublevels of the base towards the wormhole gate beneath it, trains had returned empty to take the survivors back to Adalouse where it was safe. Leonello stopped at the dsiplay where the Paladin had his avatar.
"I will stay behind, protocol is that all remaining data centres must be destroyed to prevent capture. Stored consciousness and AI have been moved, Only I remain now." The Paladin said solemnly
"Will we see you again?" Leonello asked.
"You will not, my successor The Sentinel is to take my place once I perish." The Paladin replied.
Leonello saluted and the avatar and The Paladin returned it. They parted ways. The evacuation was quick and efficient, Leonello waited for the last train before departing as he stepped on he could feel the thunderous shake of the ground as missiles finally breached the defences. He left wordless back to report on the battle to the Duchess.
The bloom of damaged and destroyed Federation ships filled Othen's holosphere, laboured breathing muffled by a humidiant he had strapped to his face. The aeroslized stimulants and nanomeds invading his system were necessary, his cranial jack still loaded from the additional strain it wasn't calibrated for yet. Baril lay within transit speeds, yet so did Merveilleuse. A dread timer had hung over their heads from the minute Leonello had made his announcement, and as Othen's combined fleet remained on full burn the time that had passed had lapsed his mind. Opening a bead to the Neraguesean admiral, the head of the Desalasan Diaspora figured he looked quite pathetic right now.
"Vathador. How long ago... was Leonello's announcement?" He said, straining as both his and Hager's fleets threatened to merge.
"I count... 4 hours, 13 minutes, sir Othen." He intoned back, his expression turning grave.
"...damn it." One of his hands magnetically guided themselves to his face, greedily lapping up the sweat upon it. "Vino, his men... how many...?"
"I wouldn't know, sir. I'd have to consult his admirals."
"And how long... would the... the landers take to... fully evacuate?"
A silence hung on the Neregeuse end, before he responded with solemnnity. "Starting right now, optimistically, 30 minutes. At most, we would have... 17 minutes to warp out."
"Thank you, Vathador." He nodded, speaking on a sigh. He expected this, in truth. Time had blurred while he reorganized Vino's fleet, began the burn to Baril. He cursed to himself internally - 17 at best would still be cutting it close, for the largest ships in the fleet their drives took up to 10 minutes to spool up. And it was an optimist's estimate.
He thought of how many men could have been deployed to Baril. How many tens, maybe hundreds of thousands deployed planetwide to every possible major military installation, all for establishing tactical superiority. How many that, were he to cut losses now, would be stranded in enemy territory, likely to be executed or worse by the Feds when they arrived after Merveilleuse had sent her foul gifts. Uncountable families, uncountable tragedies. The jack accentuated emotion with the strain, and he elected to pursue on one order only.
No man left behind.
"Hager." Another transmission from Othen's ship, still crackling from the damage suffered earlier. On sensors, the largest ships of the fleet had begun an early spoolup of their drives while still keeping their trajectory. "Warp your forces out. Ours will engage packup operations at Baril, then jump. 30 minutes. We, we should make it."
A pause, before he continued, voice dimmed. "If we don't, know this was an honor. Fair winds. Othen out."
Silence reigned once more, as Othen's armada careened towards Baril.
Hager debating giving a reply, stating that he would ignore Othens statement. That he would assist in the evacuation and cover his fleets withdraw.
But Othen was right. They didn't have the time.
He would not make it.
Better to withdraw, than to lose their entire force.
"Fair Winds Othen. Come back safe" Was all he managed to send.
"Admiral FTL drives are charged and ready"
Hager took a deep breath. He looked at the casualty estimates already and the damage inflicted here, he though about Vino's death. This all had to be worth it.
"Drop interdiction and jump"
The order was given, the last of Hagers formation dissapearing as it jumped away from the system, hoping, praying. That rest of the BULO force would make it out as well. (edited)
The experience for the average soldier in the following hours was one characterised by a blind and desperate frenzy. Having already amalgamated at their hardpoints, the Bulo landforces began a full evacuation even before the fighting between forces above Baril had abated.
General Senecaral himself made it a personal policy to only make his own departure once the only men left were the dwindling rearguard deployed to ensure that no last minute suicidal operation had been planned. Defended by Admiral Tagvah’s forces as they united with Othen’s, the troop ships one by one began to attach to their motherships or independently flash out from the system. The evacuation at Baril left no man behind, but most heavy equipment, ordinance and armour was left to be bathed in the destruction that would later follow.
The goal of the Baril assault had been to damage the strategic infrastructure of the Royal Federation. The goal now seemed to have been rendered redundant, and thousands of lives had been lost in pursuit of it. Vino was among them, and represented the most highest-ranking casualty among all Bulo forces present during the operation. A memorial would later be erected on his homeworld in memory of the sacrifice of both him and the Compact’s servicemen.
The battle was done, but a war was only beginning.