It is nearly time. In less than an hour will the Kyreikon fleets fall out of Hyper. The last preparations can still be done, but everything is now risky, especially if the preparation is far from the main battle line, because if you do not manage to make it back in time, you are dead.
Although there was now at least certainty about what the Defense Fleet Andraskon - Terra would be facing. The original estimation had mostly been correct, merely 3 of the expected destroyers were missing. Likely to defend something that could not be uncovered, for example due to a sudden spike in piracy within an area. No need for heavy forces, nor many forces, yes, but a need for some forces nonetheless.
This meant that the Kyreikon fleet, designated by the UEN as Kyreikon Formation Alpha (KFA) consisted out of 18 battleships, 33 heavy cruisers, 55 light cruisers, and 92 destroyers, which meant that the KFA outnumbered DFA-T by a significant margin, even though they had managed to get a number of reinforcements. While the fixed defences that had been created in the last month had some value, they likely would not be enough to equalise the disparity in numbers, considering that the DFA-T only had 5 battleships, which meant that they had gained two, 13 heavy cruisers, an increase of 4, 20 light cruisers, which meant no reinforcements in that ship type and 67 destroyers, where they had gotten a massive increase of over 50%, 27 additional ships in total.
Still, while that meant that they only had 25 less destroyers than the enemy, and in relative terms even 72% of the enemies strength in that type of ship, in heavier ships the situation looked far worse. While in absolute terms they had no class where the situation was worse, in relative terms, well, they had 27% of the enemies battleship strength, 39% of the enemies heavy cruiser strength and 36% of the enemies light cruiser strength.
Luckily, the enemy transports were irrelevant for the battle and likely barely armed, if that. From the ones captured over Terra, as well as some data the UEN had captured in the meantime, if a transport was armed, that weaponry tended to be specialised defenses against asteroid impacts. Because asteroid impacts on starships are actually quite uncommon, especially considering the minor fact that ships can dodge and asteroids can not change course, that type of armament was rare, and not particularly strong to begin with. In a true battle line transports would be worse than useless, considering that they could get into the way of a true warship, and obscure its firing line, while not being capable of providing a whole lot. The best use for them in a battle line was as weak shields, and transports were not cheap, nor heavily enough armoured to make that a viable strategy.
Admiral Schwimmer felt a bit bad about being happy for the blight of the Kyreikon civilians on the planet below, because without that he would have never gained the additional battleships, and likely far fewer destroyers. Still, that situation was well in hand, and should they loose here, well, then it was someone else’s problem. And it did nearly double his battleship strength, which meant that his chances to pull a victory were, well, not necessarily good, but better than they had been before.
He had thought about retreating, ceding the system to the enemy, leaving a humanitarian disaster in their hands, but had decided against that. Not only would it be risking a disaster for the civilian population on the planet below, but it would also have some political implications. While by now a defeat and leaving of Terra seemed unlikely, it was not impossible for the UE to decide that playing turtle might be the best idea ever. Of course, at some point something would disrupt it, and then the game would begin anew, but it was a viable strategy for the enormous industrial might of the UE.
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Which did not take into account that purposefully provoking a humanitarian disaster, either through action or inaction, was unconstitutional. Which would help the ones that wanted to dissolve the fleet and give its role to a purely civilian agency. How that was supposed to work, well, no one was quite certain, but figuring that out was not the mission of the activists behind that movement. That was why the UE had politicians for, after all. Thaddeus snorted. Yeah, right. In their dreams, maybe. But somehow that particular movement was actually relevant currently. He personally could not understand why, but he admitted, at least to himself, that be might be a tad biased.
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The enemy fleet had arrived. Luckily, well, luckily for the defenders at least, one of the minefields that could be constructed was directly in the enemies path, which would help. On the other hand, any hope that the data gathered during the enemies faster than light approach had been somehow incorrect was proven to be merely that. Hope. And sadly not what was actually going on. On the other hand, the enemy did not have more ships than expected, so at least something went right?
The defenders watched, hoping that the enemy would advance into the minefield while not being aware of it. It worked, but sadly the Kyreikon admiral kept his destroyers in front of his fleet, and while the mines where stealthy, that did not mean that they could get to literally meters of the enemy hull.
Admiral Schwimmer waited carefully. He had a lag of three seconds between him and the mines, although they would activate if the enemy began vectoring away from them automatically, or if the first enemy ships leaved the minefield, it still meant that he would need to anticipate when, three seconds in the future the enemy would detect the mines, so that nothing could go wrong, and for the best possible result. Hell, maybe the best result was a bit earlier than that, because, for example, a battleship would be sitting right on top of a mine when it began.
He waited. And then he wanted to send, but the enemy found the mines first, which activated the automatic activation sequence. It was not perfect, but it was good enough. And, considering how the enemy used his light elements as a shield, likely to prevent his battleships from pulling of a surprise attack he could not think was possible, they had lost a significant chunk of those.
The enemy losses were 1 battleship, with a second damaged, although it was unlikely that that damage was major, 3 heavy cruisers, with a few more likely damaged, and one more retreating back towards the transports, so effective losses of four, 7 light cruisers and 29 destroyers.
The admiral was happy about that, especially because it meant he had more ships in at least one ship type. Admittedly, it was the least useful one in regards to pure firepower, and normally relevant as mobile scanner platforms who could shoot back, which was not that important to him thanks to his preparations, but it was still a nice feeling. He sadly did not outnumber the enemy… Suddenly someone cried out: “Admiral, you need to hear this!”
“What is? Also, we have protocol for a reason. This better be important!”
“Its the navy, we will be reinforced in 5 hours. 70 battleships, I repeat 70 battleships are coming!”
“Thanks for the information. While it is indeed important, the next time, please keep to protocol, especially because this message is currently not time sensitive.”
“Sorry, Sir.”
“Apology accepted. Your excitement over this news is, after all, understandable.”
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The following 5 hours were problematic for Admiral Schwimmer. While he knew that reinforcements were win their way, and he could theoretically ceed ground the entire time, doing that would let the enemy realize something was up. And bagging 18 enemy battleships would be a coup, especially because those were basically all heavy forces within 6 months of travel. Admittedly that was the state of things 2 months ago, but it would still give the UEN much needed breathing room, because its logistical system was nearing failure. It was, in fact, so bad, that currently no more battleships were constructed and instead freighters were running of the assembly line.
He traded ground, destroyed another battleship, 9 heavy cruisers and 17 light cruisers as well as a further 12 destroyers while only loosing 2 heavy cruisers, 5 light cruisers and 9 destroyers in the process, although one of his battleships was heavily damaged after an unlucky hit.
But finally the reinforcements appeared. After that it was a short, although brutal fight that destroyed the damaged battleships and heavily savaged his minor combatants, but the entire enemy fleet was defeated.