Ivan Kal - Sanctuary

Adrian looked at his c-board, looking at the results of his little opening move. The damage his ships inflicted looked much worse that it really was. None of the Sowir ships were critically damaged, they detected the fire early enough to escape the brunt of it, but it must have hurt their pride. If Sowir even had such emotions. The enemy fleet had altered their course, now they were coming on an arch that would take them to the right of the Nel fleet, using it as a shield against Adrian’s fleet. Both Adrian and Isani were forced to make adjustments as well. Now altering their course to bring them parallel to that of the Sowir. Eventually this arched course would bring them back towards Nuva. Adrian and Isani formed their ships into two “walls” one above the other, with Adrian’s fleet taking the top and Isani’s the bottom. After they adjust their course they would be travelling parallel to the Sowir, until eventually both forces smashed into one another. The two forces entered laser range, and almost simultaneously all three commanders ordered their ships to fire.

Invisible beams reached out of the human and Nel ships to strike the Sowir, just as theirs reached out to strike back. Missiles joined the battle, thousands of missiles were fired on both sides, and the space between the two opposing forces became bathed in explosions, with only a few managing to get through. The Sowir laser defenses proved more efficient than the human ones in the sense that their targeting was better, but the sheer amount of defensive shells that the human ships fired provided the difference. The entire space between them was blanketed in cover fire, in a random pattern that Sowir missiles were hard pressed to evade. The bulk of Sowir missiles were targeted at Nel ships, with the human ships using most of their defensive fire to cover for them. The laser beams started inflicting more and more damage on the Nel ships as the two forces drew closer, while human resistant hulls managed to dissipate most of it. On the other side the Sowir ships were soaking in a lot of damage from the human ships. The Leivathan’s heavy lasers were hitting the Sowir battleships hard as they moved out to cover their other ships. The battle was more or less even, until the Sowir opened up with their particle beams.

Leviathan

Adrian watched his command board, the battle was very even, which frustrated Adrian. He had thought that faced with weapons they have never seen before Sowir would slip up, but they had adapted extremely well. The few volleys of railgun fire he sent their way they evaded easily, making small adjustments to their course. And his ships just didn’t have enough shells to blast the entire area in which they were maneuvering. Very few of his missiles managed to pass through, which again frustrated Adrian. The data they got from Voyager indicated that they managed to hit the attacking Sowir ships with two missiles, and that was with not even a hundred missiles fired. Perhaps it was luck, or there was some other factor that Adrian just couldn’t see. But now he had barely 20 verified hits on the enemy ships, all dealing light damage. He needed to get them through or he would soon exhaust his missile supply. The closer his ships were to the Sowir the more effective his railguns would be. His laser weapons were inflicting moderate damage, but still not enough to take a ship out.

“We need to change the flow, and soon.” Adrian said.

“Their ships evading patterns are too random, and each time we hit they start rolling the ship spreading out the beam. We can’t keep our laser beams locked on them for enough time to inflict significant damage.” Iris said.

“We need to close the distance, our ships can take a lot more than theirs. And our weapons more effective up close.” Adrian said.

“But Nel ships can’t, they will take heavy casualties.” Iris warned.

“I don’t see much choice now.” Adrian said.

Adrian reached out to open a channel to Retsar Isani when his command board flashed. He turned his eyes to the map just as an update popped up, the Nel light cruiser Pride had sustained heavy damage. It was now trying to get behind one of the heavy cruisers. Before he could ask Iris said, “Sowir battleships have started firing their particle weapons.”

Adrian looked at the damage to the Nel light cruiser, its maneuverability was greatly reduced. And they stopped firing their lasers. Looking at its position, and the position of the heavy cruiser that was moving to cover it. He knew that it wouldn’t make it, but one of his ships was in a much better position above the Nel light cruiser. Just as he was about to send the order to the ship, he saw that battleship Protector had started moving to cover the Nel ship. A moment later Adrian received a message from Force Leader Krylov that he was moving to provide cover for the Nel ship. Agreeing with the call, Adrian sent orders to his other ships to close the gap from the Protector. The Sowir particle weapons had changed the flow, his ships had now started to accumulate damage. Seeing that he needed to turn the flow Adrian opened a comm to Retsar Isani telling him his plans, and then executed a series of commands that would hopefully turn the tide of the battle.

As orders from Adrian’s command board went out to his ships and their commanders moved to execute them, it seemed as if a shiver went over the battlefield. Adrian’s light cruisers Sting, Swift, and heavy cruisers Freedom and Enterprise started accelerating on a course that would take them above the field of battle. While Leviathan, battleships Battle Song and Protector, and heavy cruiser Valkyrie turned and started accelerating directly towards the Sowir force. Retsar Isani spread his ships below the plane of battle, pushing his own battleship, two heavy cruisers and five light cruisers forward parallel to the Leviathans course, but held back a bit, while his damaged light cruiser and frigates stayed back providing missile and laser pressure on the Sowir alongside the First Fleets light cruisers Conqueror and Talon. The abrupt course change took Sowir by surprise, which allowed Adrian’s ships to overwhelm Sowir defenses for a few moments. Multiple missile strikes hit the Sowir ships from the combined fire of human and Nel, with Leviathan’s heavy lasers inflicting significant damage to the two Sowir heavy cruisers. But soon Sowir adapted, and their six battleships turned and set a course to intercept the Leviathan and its escorts. The two Troop transports had kept back shielded by the light cruisers, but as Leviathan grew closer, they also changed course and four out of six light cruisers followed. Their new course brought them through the hole that Leviathan made in his forces wall, and then straight to Nuva.

As he saw the new course of the Sowir light cruisers and the two transports Adrian knew that he had made a mistake. His ships wouldn’t be able to fire upon them as the six battleships kept pressure on them, the taskforce he sent above the plane of battle was too far away and turning them back now would serve no point. Retsar Isani’s ships were following Adrian’s and were likewise engaged. The only ships that could intercept them were Retsar Isani’s frigates, one damaged light cruiser and Adrian’s two light cruisers, Conqueror and Talon. The damaged light cruiser couldn’t achieve the acceleration enough to intercept, which left Conqueror, Talon, and four frigates. Frigates had already almost expended their missile loads, and their light laser turrets were not up to par, not to mention their lightly armored hulls. Which meant the bulk of the work would fall on Adrian’s ships. Two against four. Adrian knew that he had no choice. He manipulated the command board and sent the orders. It would be up to them, he couldn’t control their battle.