Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

February 12th, 003 SDE, Mune 337 star system 0740 hours

The commander leaned over her tac plot, recent reports had gotten a bearing on the Refuge fleet which had brought them to the Mune star cluster. They had been hunting the Refuge ships for the last week and she was now certain they were somewhere in the Mune 337 star system. A massive trinary system with thirteen gas giants, eighteen rocky planets, some three hundred moons, four asteroid belts and a massive ring of ice on the edges of the system. Like much of the Mune star cluster, the system was located in a stellar region with remarkably high particle densities which resulted in gorgeous gas streams lighting the system. Just outside her viewports was a light show that many tourists would pay money to see. Sadly, the system was also somewhat difficult to navigate, the high concentrations of ionizing radiation were known to disrupt sensors. One of the local stars occasionally put out especially powerful bursts that would polarize the local medium and ionize the shields of any ship in the path of the burst. It was known to occasionally disable ships that have entered the system due to the deleterious effects of ion radiation on ship systems. She just hoped the system would be as detrimental to the Refuge as it was to them, but wasn’t going to count on it.

She had already ordered the ships in her fleet to adjust their shields to compensate for the local effects and right now the local star was looking stable. Meaning they were likely safe from the worst the system had to offer, but only for now. It could change at any moment.

At the moment she had a number of scoutships deployed throughout the system to narrow down the location of the Refuge fleet. All the clues she had gathered pointed to them being here, but she knew it was possible that they had already departed the system. It might even be a waste of time, but she wanted to be sure they were no longer here before she moved to the next system.

An officer approached her with a report. “Commander, scoutship 48 has reported a graviton anomaly in grid 22-B, analysis indicates a high probability of an artificial source.”

“A refuge ship? Tell them to confirm, and move us toward grid 22, just in case.”

The officer nodded and moved off to carry out her orders. In moments they were on their way as scoutship 48 proceeded to investigate the signature.

A few minutes passed before the scoutship was able to confirm the presence of Refuge ships. Three sightings in a loose orbit of a gas giant, one of the biggest in this system. She recalled that one in particular was noted for high concentrations of light gases including hydrogen in its atmosphere. Of most interest was that it was extremely rich in deuterium. To the point that many companies would have set up a refinery if not for the local conditions. That world alone would make an outpost here profitable in a more normal system.

Those thoughts vanished from her mind a moment later when a bright energy burst went off in the area and Scoutship 48 vanished from the board. She blinked, that was far too fast! Her mind raced to identify why, even as her officer reported the ship lost with all hands. Equipment failure didn’t seem likely as there were no warnings received about the ship experiencing reactor trouble or something of the like. Two possibilities stuck out to her as particularly likely. Either A, they had struck a mine, something the Refuge were known to use, or B they had been torpedoed. The second case would indicate the Refuge saw them first, which would in turn suggest that the Refuge had at least one ship with better sensors than Scoutship 48. Allowing them to sight the small corvette, identify her, and destroy the ship. In either case, the Refuge knew they were here but she also couldn’t make assumptions on which case was true. Therefore it was safer to presume both were true.

“Full sensors, I want you all keeping an eye out for mines and torpedoes.”

There was a quick response and then she split the fleet into wings. Sending Alpha wing off in one direction, and Beta wing in the opposite. Her plan was a classic three-wing assault. Alpha and Beta were the flanks, they would swing around to block avenues of escape, while her forces in Gamma wing would move in for the kill. In theory at least, but she didn’t know what other formation would work best here. It seemed to her like the best move.

The next few minutes passed glacially as she watched the tac plots. No ships were on sight, but she knew the general location of the enemy. It was weird being so close and not being able to see them. It reminded her of the stories of old naval combat, where ships didn’t even have sensor arrays and relied on visual markers to locate a target. It was a very different era, but she had enjoyed the stories of the period mainly due to how different they were.

It was the later ones of the period that she based her next move on. “Scramble fighters, load probes for launch.”

“Aye, ma’am.”

As the fighters scrambled, she ordered formations and then had probes deployed to the area. Between the two she would be able to get a fix on the enemy position. In moments she had three fighter wings moving into the area along with fast-moving probes. A combination she never would have had before thanks to those cheapskates on the council, but the new backers were much more reasonable. She was really happy to have all these new toys to play with. It felt like the military was finally going in the right direction.

For several more agonizing minutes, there was nothing on the plot and then three sightings appeared, a loose triangular formation with the big girl in the middle and the smaller destroyers on the flanks. Heading towards alpha. She gave the order to adjust heading and then the next order to prep the bomber wings. They were still outside pulse cannon range, but an escorted bombing run might prove effective. At this range they would only be able to effectively launch fighters at each other.

As her fighter and bomber wings prepared to launch, she watched new signatures appear. The enemy were also launching fighters. Sixty small craft divided into small squadrons took up defensive positions around their mother ships. The enemy definitely had better sensors and by this point, she was certain her scoutship had been torpedoed. Regardless she was still looking out for mines, but there had been no sightings of any.

She had no orders to give, so she was left with a long wait as they closed. Out there she would soon see how her strikecraft would fare against theirs. She listened as the pilots chattered and before long they were finally ready to clash. Alien fighter wings dived into her much larger formations and soon energy bursts sailed between them as they clashed.

Outnumbered, it wasn’t long before several bombers moved into position to make runs on the alien capital ships. They were loaded with the new antimatter warheads, volatile stuff but it was also quite powerful. She had heard the military had been purchasing them in large numbers, these fighter-mounted antimatter warheads were not of Valorian design but were advertised as highly effective against strong shields and armor. Testing had proven them against shields, soon they would see about armor.

Suddenly her pilots chatter lit up massively and she watched as numerous missile launches rippled off the alien flagship. Her bombers were forced to scatter as missiles closed in. Some pilots proved unlucky and were hit, setting off brilliant fireballs in the clouds of the Mune system. For a moment she was afraid the attack was a complete bust, but then several bombers managed to line up and release their payloads.

They streaked towards the destroyer on the left flank. A barrier flared into existence and several rounds detonated against the barrier sending jets of energy into the alien hull. Before the next wave could hit, the alien destroyer surged forward causing the projectiles to sail past her harmlessly. A moment later they curved back and slammed into a second projected barrier like the first. Moments later she received the assessment report. No hull breaches, minor damage to the alien armor. They would need a direct hit to score any meaningful damage, same as with plasma warheads.

She had been told the council wanted that armor, and now that she saw it in action she understood why. If it could take that it would actually be more than a useless lump of steel weighing the ship down. Thoughts she pushed aside, as she considered her task of defeating the alien defenses and disabling at least one vessel so that they could board.

She gave the order for the next wave of bombers to launch, as the first wave returned. The CIC erupted into chaos as they scrambled to prepare the next squadron of bombers. It would be a couple of minutes, while in the meantime her fighters were keeping the alien fighters engaged. Despite the number advantage, it seemed the alien fighters were able to hold their own.

In the distance, the sharp bursts of energy illuminated the clouds like lightning strikes. It was as beautiful as it was dangerous. A sight others might want to get lost in, but it belied the dangerous nature of the pitched dogfight happening just a few million kilometers away. The display clearly showing casualty numbers, it wasn’t the best showing so far 15 fighters and 23 bombers had been lost so far and no significant damage had been inflicted. Aside from one enemy starfighter retreating to the mothership after taking a full volley of plasma missiles, they didn’t seem to have made a dent in the Refuge forces. On the flip side, her losses while larger remained minor, she had thousands of pilots under her command and this was just the opening salvo.

Suddenly there were shouts on the comms, from Alpha wing. It took a minute before the reports of torpedoes came in. It seemed the enemy managed to fire unnoticed. There was little however for her to do as the local commander responded to the threat, leaving her stuck watching as numerous warheads were bearing down on the cruisers that made up that wing. Point defenses engaged attempting to shoot down the fast-moving projectiles. Plasma lit up the clouds and a few flashes erupted as bolts found their mark, then a massive fireball erupted as a cruiser was hit. A second later two more, then four. Before she could blink dozens of fireballs dominated the spinward position she had sent alpha towards.

The damage report came in several seconds later, thirteen ships destroyed, sixty-three more heavily damaged. Alpha wing reported itself as still combat-ready as most of its ships were still able to fight. Regardless, she didn’t like that the enemy had scored the first real blood in this engagement. Turning she gave the next orders, just as the second wave arrived. Something she gave an eye to as the bombers made their runs.