The battle of X472 - Reunion Short story

[plawolf]

This short story is a 'dramatization' of a real fight I had while playing Reunion a few years back.

Let me know what you guys think.

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***Biometric authentication approved. Please stand by for decryption keys***

***Accessing transcript of verbal After Action Debriefing of Fleet Commodore Xavier Santoro.***

A: Commodore, I would like to apologies that we need to debrief you so soon after such an intense and protracted battle, but given the specifics of your mission and what happened, I hope you can appreciate our situation.”

C: It’s fine, what would you want to know Agent?”

A: In your own words, please describe how the mission unfolded.

C: As per standard fleet operational procedures when entering Xenon controlled sectors, an advanced scout went through the gate before the main battle group.

Flight Captain Peterson was the pilot who volunteered for the sortie.

Approximately 30 seconds after he cleared the North gate, we received a Class 2 All Clear from Cpt Peterson, and the Omega Destroyer Dauntless jumped in with two fighter wings operating under Tac II conditions.***File suspended***

***Accessing historical records, search term: Tac II Conditions…Please Stand by…Retreating file***

Before the introduction of the Link 11 tactical datalink system based on Terrain Technology, no Commonwealth race possessed a fighter sized datalink robust enough to be resistant to Xenon hacking attempts.

After repeated “Blue on Blue” friendly fire and misdirection incidents, standard operating procedures for fighters operating in Xenon sectors was to arrange them into small independent fighting units with a staggered chain of command that relied on voice communication with fleet flight operators.

The smallest basic unit is the “squadron” typically consisted of 4 fighters. The lead fighter has a wingman assigned to protect him, and a second wingman assigned to attack the nearest enemy of the squadron leader. This second wingman has a wingman of his own assigned to protect him.

The next unit up is a fighter “wing”, consisting of four squadrons, with the squadron commanders of the other squadrons assigned to attack the nearest target of the squadron commander.

Such arrangements allowed a fleet commander to direct large numbers of fighters to different targets and/or area of operation with a single command, but has some fundamental structural limitations and deficiencies as the Battle of X472 demonstrated per***File closed***

***Re-initiating transcript of verbal After Action Debriefing of Fleet Commodore Xavier Santoro.***
C: At first, everything looked like it was going far better than we could have hoped. Cpt Peterson’s mission was to engage and lure any Xenon capital ships blockading the gate to a safe distance to allow our fleet to jump in unmolested. But when Cpt Peterson went through, there were only a handful of Xenon fighters and a couple of Ps in sensor range.

They were no threat to our capital ships, and were dispatched with commendable swiftness by the Dauntless and her fighter escorts for no loss.

The carrier Enterprise then entered the system with the Omega Destroyers Unrelenting Fury, Prometheus, Agamemnon, Defiant and Righteous Wrath following the Dauntless, and the battle group was completed when my own frigate wing of a dozen Hyperions jumped in as the rearguard.

At first, we thought someone else had beaten us to the punch, as the sector was virtually deserted of Xenon activity.

As our scouts extended our sensor coverage, the only Xenon capital ship on the scopes as a single J, and she was actually moving South at full steam. It looked for all the world like the J was running away in the face of might of our fleet.

We’d never even heard of something like this, but we were ecstatic and like fools we gave chase, and then it all went to hell.

The first indication of trouble we had was when the J turn round and faced us, seconds later, a formation of 4 Ks and 2 Js appeared at the Southern edge of our sensors accompanied by a rash of fighters and Ps.

We stopped our forward advance to allow the Enterprise to scramble fighters while the rest of the fleet manoeuvred into a combat spread. It was a non-standard indulgence of Admiral Keynes, and it saved us all.

If we hadn’t have stopped, we would never have seen the second Xenon fleet until it was far too late.

Just as the fleet was starting to accelerate into combat speed, a Xenon K appeared at the Northernmost edge of our sensors. Concerned, Admiral Keynes ordered Cpt Peterson to take his M5 and discover the extent of this second Xenon force, but continued the advance of the main fleet.

Keynes only expected a single K with some fighters, we all did. But it wasn’t just one ship, it was an entire fleet! We counted at least 3 Ks, a J and assorted fighters and Ps before we lost the signal from Cpt Peterson. Damned fool got too close trying to show us as much as he could.

Damned fool us as well, we were too committed. The Enterprise had already launched it’s entire fighter contingent. Five fighter wings plus the two that went in with Dauntless. Over a hundred fighters without jump drives, and with not enough time to recover them even if the Enterprise could have held them all.

Adm Keynes firmly believed that if the two Xenon fleets were able to pincer our fleet between them, they would annihilate us. Our only chance was to defeat them piecemeal.

To that end, the Admiral transferred his flag from the Enterprise onto the Dauntless and took command of all the destroyers along with 3 fighter wings and continued South. I was ordered to take my Hyperion fleet and the remaining 4 fighter wings and head North. Our mission was to hold the Northern Xenon fleet at all cost and by the destroyers enough time to destroyer the Southern fleet and recharge their shields if necessary before combining forces with us to destroy the Northern Xenon fleet.

The Enterprise was ordered to flee East. Her only mission was survival, and if she could draw off any Xenon strengths to pursue her, then that would be a bonus.

What followed was one of the longest, most brutal and costly battles of my life, but the intensity of it was such that I could only remember snatches of it. If you want a more complete record of what happened, you’d best check the gun camera footage from the black box of my ship.

A: We recovered the black box already from the wreckage of your ship Commodore, but device suffered significant damage and we were only able to recover a fraction of the data, anything you could remember would be helpful.

C: As a Fleet Commodore, I was afforded special privileges, one of which was access to top end weapons and missiles while the bulk of our forces had to make do with standard issue. I was the only one who had imported Boron Tempest missiles and Teladi Typhoons, how differently things might have been if all our ships had such missiles!

But I digress. The Southern front engaged first, but there was hardly any time to monitor their progress. I was within missile range soon after.

As our fleets closed and entered Tempest range, I let loose with everything I had. 30 missiles 20 seconds.

A: That might be a record. Shame we can’t tell anyone about it.

C: Just as well, I wasted those missiles. The screens were a mess of enemies from two engagements. I didn’t have time to sift through all that to pick individual targets for each missile to make sure they were all within range. So I tried to rely on the re-targeting capability of the Tempest. I fired off 3 in quick succession to make sure, and then fired the rest after 10 seconds.

The first 3 impacted perfectly, and killed the L I was targeting neat as you please, and the rest of the Tempests locked onto other targets just as they were supposed to. Just a damn shame they all decided to lock on to a K, and flew straight into a wall of Flak. Whether any missile actually made it through that I will never know, but even if any did, it didn’t make any discernable difference to the K’s shield strength.

Before I could close my jaw, we were within missile range for the rest of the fighters, and suddenly space was filled with missiles.

The Hyperions had Mosquito Missile Defense (MMD) and the fighters had turrets with anti-missile load outs. We should have been fine, but we were just not ready for the number of missiles coming at us.

We lost so many in those opening few moments, most from a single missile. The hallow boom that could only be a hammerhand must have struck at the very centre of Razor wing, as the blast took out the wing commander and at least half a dozen others.

More fell as their shields, weakened by multiple missile impacts, finally gave way along with their hulls in hails of green plasma fire.

But we gave as good as we got, if not better and Xenon ships were blossoming left and right.

I had deliberately dropped back a little as our two forces merged, ordering the various squadron leaders of Halo Wing to help punch a hole through the enemy fighter screen to allow me a clear shot at one of the Ks with my Typhoons.

As the K disintegrated under the barrage Typhoons, I notice the shields on my own Hyperion drop below 50% and decide I could no longer afford ignore the gaggle of Xenon fighters hounding my six despite the best efforts of Halo Wing.

The details of the ensuing dogfights all blur into one, but one moment that will always stay with me.

I had just flew through the flaming wreckage of a Xenon fighter when I see a Hyperion pull up from an attack run on a K or a J being chased by a halo of flak bursts.

The Hyperion wallowed and seemed to take forever to rise as flak fire engulf it. But incredibly, it’s shields were holding and it was pulling away! Just as I felt that it must be near the edge of flak range and that it is going to make it, the beautiful outline of the graceful ship disappear and burst apart into flaming debris. It was one of the most heartbreaking things I had ever seen.

My Typhoons are long gone, and I knew that trying to avenge the fallen Hyperion would just see me share its fait. Rage took me then, and I plunged into the enemy fighters and hoped the battle was going better for the main force, and hoped that they would get here soon.

We were buying them time with our lives, and we would not be able to keep up with payments for much longer.

Already, it was getting hard to co-ordinate the fighters to keep them out of the flak envelope of enemy capitals as attrition started to pull the chain of command apart. Wing and Squadron leaders were fast becoming few and far between, and as our fighters get scattered into ever smaller groups, their rate of loss accelerates.

I had long since run out of all missiles save mosquitoes, and in my desperation, had started to resort of ramming enemy fighters when my laser energy ran dry, and that proved to be my undoing.

I had just rammed through a Xenon L when I saw a flash in the distance. The kind of flash that only accompanies the death scream of a capital ship.

I pulled up the sector map to check which ship it was when I am shaken by the unmistakeable jilt of a missile impact, then another, and another. I snap off the sector map as I realize something was terribly amiss. Another impact, shields down to less than 20%, what was going on?

“Mosquito missiles are all gone sir!” The weapons operator yells the response to my frantic demands for an exploitation of why we are taking missile hits all of a sudden.

The missile approach warning has been on near constantly during the entire fight that I didn’t even register it any more, suddenly I can hear it again, and the implications became horrifying clear - this ship’s war is done.

There is barely a slither of shields left when my trembling fingers bring up the ship menu. Another hit, the shields pop like a burst soap bubble and we start taking hull damage.

Two fighters in the hanger, both priceless prides of my collection, which to take and which to leave to burn? The fully equipped Khaak fighter or the Experimental shuttle? Another hit. Just pick one, no time to think, pick one or it’s all over.

I burst from the fighter bay and accelerate away. My beautiful Phoenix isn’t there anymore by the time I bank around. I didn’t even see her die.

I dock my Experimental shuttle with one of the few surviving Hyperions and relieve the Captain of his command.

The first thing I check was the weapons inventory. Offensive missiles were all long gone, and the number of Mosquitoes barely made double digits and the weapons were horribly generic and cumbersome. Shields were adequate but by no means fully charged. I doubt whether they had been fully charged since the start of this battle.

A quick glance at the sector map confirmed what I already knew - we had done all we can. We had no real answer to the Xenon capitals, and their flaks were slaughtering us.

I scroll up the sector map to bring up the Dauntless to inform Admiral Keynes of the bad news, and the realization hit like a punch to the gut that the death flare I had seen was the Dauntless.

I assumed command of the fleet upon that realization. The only consolation was that the Omega destroyers had destroyed all Xenon Capital ships on the Southern front. Although the Prometheus had also been lost and the Defiant’s shields are down and she is taking hull damage from enemy fighter fire.

I order the remaining destroyers and the Enterprise to engage the remaining Xenon capital ships while I order the few remaining Hyperions to pull back and help defend the destroyers from enemy fighters.

Of our own fighters, the chain of command had all but collapsed by that point, and most of the surviving pilots were fighting their own individual battles.

Only one wing commander had survived the battle to that point, but none of his squadron leaders had survived and his wing was down to less than half strength and scattered to the winds.

For the rest of the battle, sector wide broadcasted orders was the only way to direct more than 1 fighter at a time, and all fighters were ordered to converge on our capitals.

I transported onto the Unrelenting Fury as soon as we were in range and oversaw the remainder of the battle from there. We destroyed the remaining Xenon capital ships for no loss of capitals of our own, although the Defiant was so badly mauled by enemy fighters before we could drive them off that I hear she will never fight again.

A: No, she will not fight again. The damage was too comprehensive, they would need to almost rebuild her from scratch. It will actually be cheaper to build a new ship. There is talk that she might be preserved as a living monument to the battle.

C: That would be something.

A: So, what was the final butchers bill?

C: We lost the Dauntless and the Prometheus. The Defiant is a burning hulk.

We lost 71 fighters, with a further 8 having suffered hull damage of varying degrees. Two entire fighter wings were wiped out and a third, Halo, reduced to just two fighters. No wing commanders survived the battle and only 6 squadron leaders survived.

Only 4 of the 12 Hyperions survived the battle, although none have any hull damage.

A: Would you make the same call?

C: I’m sorry?

A: If you could go back now, knowing the cost, would you have still stayed instead of jumping out without the fighters?

C: Yes.

[Neeros]

Nice, I enjoyed that.