CHAPTER TWO

“Nothing is impossible.”
- Motto of the Dragoons, Terran Federation Defense Force Special Unit Division

Saratosa III, Saratosa System
Kel-Dagda Combine
23.2.3267AE
0600 hrs (T-time)

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Light years away from the star system known to mankind as Saratosa, the Expedition Fleet prepared itself. The last of its combat space patrol docked with the carriers as the Fleet readied to enter what must be the Vermin’s border system. The Scout Force had encountered what must be the Vermin’s own Scout Force two years ago, and an Expedition Force was quickly assembled and sent to the border. From the first encounter, it has been deduced that the Vermin’s technological advantage could be nullified by the Fleet’s tactical doctrine.

At the Command Ship’s order, the first of the Expedition Fleet transited into hyperspace.

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Sky Marshal Eleanor Summer’s coffee cup landed on the floor with an audible crack.

Not that anyone on the bridge of the battlecruiser KCSS Radiance was paying attention to it.

“Holy God…” Her voice trailed off as she looked at the tactical display. Where the hell did they come from? Ten crimson circles burnt themselves into the plot, indication of the unknown ships that had just exited the Alpha-Saratosa jump point, and their course firmly placed them on interception course with the only habitable planet in the system: Saratosa III.

But…Beyond the jump point is unexplored space! How can there be vessels? Unless they are…

“More transits!”

The exclamation brought her face towards the secondary display, and sure enough, hyperspace signature indicated another fifty unknowns. The Saratosa division of the Kel-Dagda Combine Navy was currently under-strength, for nearly forty percent of the armada had been transferred to the Orionus Commonwealth border. After all, what could possibly threaten the security of a star system on the verge of explored space? Or so we’ve thought, Eleanor thought bitterly. She would feel more secure if the rest of the armada is here. No matter, we’ll have to do with what we have. “Hail the unknowns with standard protocols.”

The minutes ticked down, and yet there was still no response. Either they don’t have wide-band transmission, or they’re not responding on purpose. But, why wouldn’t they respond? Unless- Eleanor’s eyes widened, and she barked to the comtech, “Send a dispatch to Orbital Command: Order all civilians to begin evacuation procedure. I want all non-essential fleet element to assist in the operation. Be ready to lift-off at my call.”

The comtech, turned, his face filled with confusion, ”But Sky Marshal, we do not have the lift capacity to evacuate all of them!”

“I know,” she replied coldly, “Prioritize the evacuation, we must get as many away as possible. Whoever these bastards are, they have no intention to talk, sound General Quarters, the Armada is to prepare for battle.”

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Initial scans reviewed ship designs different to the original Vermin they had encountered, and it seemed to be slightly inferior to what they had. Indeed it was strange. No matter, their objective is clear: the third planet lies ahead of the Fleet’s path. The Vermin’s Fleet should not pose any significant threat.

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“Sky Marshal, Champion has obtained visual on the unknown, switching to the display screen…now.”

Eleanor felt a twist in her guts as she saw the monstrosity displayed on-screen. The sixty ships bearing down on her under-strength Armada looked to be of the same design, the problem was that they were approximately fifteen kilometers long! Only the Federation Space Navy’s Asgard-class(Note 1) was comparable in size and the biggest capital ship in the Combine Navy was a mere three-kilometer compared to the titans bearing down on the planet now. With both sides having nearly equal ships, her own Armada would be outnumbered at least twenty to one in terms of tonnage. The sleek wedge shape of those unknown vessels seemed more and more ominous as the chronometer counted down to their arrival.

There was little doubt in her mind that they would have to evacuate the planet, she simply did not have the strength to hold back her opponents if their technology level were similar. And God forbid if they have better tech! She bit her lips in frustration, if she held out to the bitter end, the unknowns would have a clear path to New Hampshire, and that system had even more population! No…we have to fight a tactical retreat, covering as many civilian transports as possible, and reinforce Sky Marshal Reynold’s Hampshire Armada.

“Tell Orbital Command to execute lift-off, we no longer have the luxury of waiting.” By normal standards, it would be to Orbital Command’s credit that they could get two million civilians to the transports in the fifty-three hours since the evacuation order was given. But another ten million still remains, she reminded herself. If the unknowns proved to be hostile (though she longer had any doubts about it), those people would be left behind to the unknown’s mercy. But nothing too terrible could happen, after all, the unknowns were clearly an intelligent species. They would most likely be taken prisoners, until the Combine Navy could muster up enough strength to take back the system.

She watched in silence as thousands upon thousands of civilian shuttles and transports left Saratosa III’s atmosphere. There was simply no way the Saratosa Armada could guard the whole convoy, it could only act as the rear-guard and attempt to repel the unknowns if they decided to give chase. The latest readings had shown that those huge vessels carried standard military engines, which gave them a far higher output than those of the civilian sectors. Navigation had given their speed estimate as that of slightly slower than the Armada, which also meant that they were faster than most of the transports in the civilian convoy.

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“Sky Marshal, they are now within firing range of our HKMs(Note 2).” Eleanor’s Chief of Staff reported. After ten hours of intense waiting, the first of those colossus constructs had finally caught up. The whole convoy was still sixteen hours away from the Hew Hampshire-Saratosa jump point, and now as the first unknowns…no, enemies, all doubt had been erased when they changed their course to intercept the now fleeing Combine vessels, entered the range of the HKMs, she gave the order to fire.

With the enemy ships coming from the Armada’s stern, the usage of the frontal armaments had been ruled out, hence the Armada would have to deal most of its damage through the HKMs, or to use its strikecrafts in repeated strikes to wear them down. Only when they were being overhauled could they finally use their broadside batteries, but slug match against opponents of those sizes did not come across well to Eleanor. But we have no choice.

She felt the slight trembling of the deck as the Radiance unloaded her entire missile ordnance within eighty-seven seconds. She watched the tactical display as six hundred and twenty-two HKMs sped away from the Armada and towards its pursuers.

Within minutes, the first missiles exploded themselves against the massive shielding of the enemy vessels. Strangely, there appeared to be no defensive fire, and all the missiles got through. Yet as the thermonuclear explosions ceased, the lumbering vessels silently pushed on, shrugging aside the missile volley. But some of their shields are in the critical region! Eleanor thought fiercely.

“Order Marshal Takeshi to launch his fighter groups, we’re not giving them breathing space,” she said to he comtech, her eyes boring into the display.

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“’K Boys and girls, you know the drill, escort the bombers to their launch point, and we shag tail out of here for another sortie,” Lieutenant Washington Sammuels, CO of the 509th Fighter Squadron, spoke into his comlink, and a series of affirmative rang out from his squadron. Around his C-23 fighter(Note 3) was the entire strike-fighter strength of the Saratosa Armada as Sky Marshal Summer had decided to follow up the missile strike with another attack from the bombers. Twenty-six fighter squadrons escorted nine bomber squadrons as they approached the launch point, where they would let loose the HKMs slung within the CA-16s’(Note 4) bomb bays and returned to the nine carriers to rearm.

His grip on the throttle tightened when the sensor display showed fighter-size signatures appearing from the enemy capital ships. His face paled behind the helmet when the final reading tallied the number of enemy fighters. Sixty thousand enemy fighters were coming at them like an unstoppable tidal wave, and they had only nine hundred fighters to engage them. Complete radio silence greeted him, as the pilots contemplated engaging such huge numbers.

“Pilots,” Marshal Takeshi’s face appeared on their com screens, “You will have to get off those HKMs as soon as possible, we are detecting more enemy strikecrafts on our sensors. We cannot afford to wait until we’ve obtained better targeting solutions. Launch once you have weapons locked. Takeshi out.”

“Alright, you heard the man, we fire as soon as they enter missile range. Then we make sure the bombers reached theirs.” Washington confirmed once more with his squadron. This is not looking the least positive.

The first missile-lock appeared on his heads up display, and he thumbed the trigger, letting fly one of his missiles as they joined numerous others as the lead element of the fighter wave entered weapons range. Thousands of ionised trails decorated the darkness as more and more missiles launched from the Combine fighters. Weird, they are not returning fire, perhaps they don’t use missiles on their fighters?

That appeared to be true as the first explosions wracked the ranks of the enemy, and still they did not launch any missiles of their own. Over four hundred enemy fighters died in that first salvo, but another fifty-nine thousand continued towards them, unaffected by the losses.

More missiles belched forth from the Combine fighters as the range ran down quickly. Washington counted down, his finger poised above the firing trigger for the gunpods. Five…four…three…two…one, Fire! He pulled back on the trigger, and the two gunpods fired their compliment of plasma death forward. His face hardened as the incoming enemies fired, their own flashes of blue erasing his friends and comrades from the Combine force.

“This is Sledgehammer Lead, package is on its way, I repeat, package is on its way. We need to pull back!” The frantic voice of the bombers’ CO came over the comlink. Shit, we’re getting bloody pounded! He twisted his C-23 around in a tight turn, and launched another missile as he reversed the angle and pulled sharply, neatly avoiding a head-on collision with an enemy fighter, while placing a warhead into its front. He had no time to dwell on it as several more enemy fighters converged on his.

The organised chaos around him continue to rage on as the outnumbered Combine fighters dogfight in a sector of space literally blanketed by enemy fighters. They filled the view of Combine pilots, for no matter how they twist or turn, they could see more of the enemy strikecrafts from their cockpits.

Washington winced when he felt a slight tremble, indicating that the shield generator had to compensate for a hit on his shields. A brief glance at the display told him that these enemies did not have very powerful energy weaponry installed on their fighters. He pulled back on the throttle and pushed his flight-stick down, decelerating while making a loop, and ended up behind the enemy that was chasing him seconds ago. He lined up the enemy within the targeting reticule, and let loose a stream of plasma bolts.

Dispassionately he noted that their shields were not very strong either as the first few bolts overloaded the enemy fighter's shielding, and the rest of the stream tore into its hull. The back of the diamond-shaped craft splintered silently before an explosion terminated its short life during combat.

Now just fifty-eight thousand more to go. He chuckled mirthlessly, and flew his C-23 back into the massive dogfight.

1. Asgard-class - Refers to the FSN's Asgard-class Mobile Fortress. The flagship of theTerran Federation's famous home fleet, the Avalon Squadron. Not much is known of this massive vessel except for the Republic of Kaspov's Navy encounter against the FSN during The Great War in the tide turning engagement, the Battle of Sol. It had destroyed the RKN's Super Destroyer RKV October in a matter of seconds. Measuring approximate 15 kilometers long, it was said to have at least a dozen ion cannons, and at least two planetary-sized ones. Currently, only one mobile fortress of the FSN is know, the FSCV Titan. Rumors spread of a second vessel in service.

2. HKMs - Hunter Killer Missiles. Despite its name, it is not very destructive, unlike the ion cannons. However, this weapons are named so because of their speed and accuracy as compared to the capital ships which they are designed to 'hunt'. Most carry some form of thermonuclear and hydrogen warhead, though it seems that both the Kaspov Republic and Terran Federation has antimatter arsenal.

3. C-23 - The staple fighter of the Kel-Dagda Combine Navy, or KCN, it carries two plasma gunpods, and has four modular pods for different weapon configuration. It is primarily designed as a space superiority fighter, however, and thus performs best for such a role with its excellent manuverability and above average speed.

4. CA-14 - A newly designed bomber that was recently put into mass production by the Combine. It carries a single plasma cannon placed on a turret for defensive fire, while its bay capacity can carry up to six HKMs, depending on the type of missiles loaded. Built for durablity, it is slow and unresponsive, though its shielding and armor is quite incredible.

A/N: I added more technical notes at the end of the chapter, hopefully it helps in aiding you know more about the H space universe :)