"Enemy forces detected! Starboard side, 12 light seconds* away!" Yelled a sensor operator. Attenborough sighed as he was on the Löwe; a recent standard battleship.
The Löwe was a recent make of the same class of battleships. Just about finished and launched and comissioned about 3 months ago. He simply knows that this will be a small skirmish to something bigger. But for him he's commanding a small flotilla of 100 ships. Ever since the 7th battle of Iserlohn, the 13th fleet was called to Heinessen for the fame on capturing Iserlohn Fortress. After that both the 9th and 10th Fleets had been moved to Iserlohn to make sure no one would attack as command for both was left to Rear Admiral Lionel Morton.
"How many ships are there?" Asked Attenborough as the sensor operator responds. "About 120 ships in total from they way they're moving they haven't detected us. Probably due to the radiation from the star."
The star Iserlohn Fortress orbits around creates a lot of both energy and radiation. Even if you're about a light second away from it and an enemy would barely be readable on the sensors.
"Sir, the enemy has started to move!" Yelled the sensor operator as the imperial ships start to move.
"All ships prepare to fire!" Yells Attenborough as all of the ships prepare to open fire. Jowever the enemy ships thought otherwise.
"Sir! A small detachments of 20 ships are heading to the left flank!" Yelled the sensor operator.
Have the battleship, Mikasa with 20 ships to engage them." Says Attenborough as his ship, the Löwe maneuvers with the other 78 ships to engage the rest. The larger enemy flotilla which is now equal in numbers to theirs.
"Sir, incoming message from Mikasa they report that the 20 enemy ships are destroyed, 1 cruiser has been damaged." Says the communications operator.
"Alright, reorganize the squadron. 25 ships for the left and right flanks and 50 for the center. Prepare for incoming attack." Attenborough says as the remaining ships reorganizing to the attack.
"Enemy approaching, they've passed yellow zone! They're in green zone*!" The sensor operator yells.
"Shit! All ships open fire!" He yells as all ships open fire. The laser fire hits as ships on both sides explode, but the battle was over as the Imperial fleet tucked tail and ran.
Attenborough sighs in relief. "XO send report to Iserlohn we recently entered combat with small Imperial flotilla, 36 enemy ships destroyed, 13 ships lost."
"It's a victory for us sir," his XO says, but Attenborough doesn't speak. 'It may be, but for how long?' He thought as his small flotilla was heading back to Iserlohn.
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Meanwhile in the Empire the other people inside the Galactic Empire start their discussion and schemes.
Bells were ringing outside the building of Prime Minister Lichtenlade. He sits in his curved and bowed out desk as the Finance Minister Gerlach was with him.
"This is a report from Count Remscheidt, our Comissioner at Phezzan."
"And so the true source of the information is?"
"Probably Rubinsky." Lichtenlade says with near disdain.
"What is the 'Black Fox' of Phezzan planning?" Gerlach asked not only himself, but also the Prime Minister.
"Whatever, a force of thirty two and a half million troops..." he paused as he thought. "Who shall we assign to intercept it?"
Gerlach had a light bulb light up in his head. "Shouldn't it be given to that brat?"
"But that man... if he wins, he'll be even more full of himself." The Prime Minister says, but Gerlach moves forward. "Then let him be full of himself," he said to the old man. "We should make use of his power while we can. And then, we can deal with that bray like that whenever we want to."
Lichtenlade then realized it and nods. "Yes, That's true."
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As the talks were happening within the Empire, the Alliance Admirals were busy with the plan of the operation on Heinessen.
As for all of the 10 admirals who were present. They were busy for three weeks on the talks of the having to deal with the problems. But seeing the problems were immense. Seeing that the plan apart from the main part wasn't even had any value.
Harrow was the first to speak. "Good God, this is going to be an absolute endowment of a disaster as can ever be. This is oddly analogous to the Vietnam War on Earth."
The other admirals looked in confusion as to why harrow said it.
"The reason why I say was that the Vietnam War was a massive hole and once the Americans had filled it, it would get bigger. This plan is basically that hole and we're the Americans."
"Yep." Said Ulanhu, "and this plan is very sloppy for anyone's taste. I wonder haw the hell this plan saw the light of day?"
It was a good question, but Bewcock was mainly silent. "We are forgetting one thing about this plan," he said as the others wonder what the old man was saying.
"What do you mean, Bewcock...?" Asked Yang as he then realized it.
"We are basically revising it to win." He said as they then realized it.
"We simply can't go with the plan that Falk made...," said Borodin
"But our plan can't be accepted by the High Council." Says Appleton.
"We are almost- no... completely deadlocked." Said Lefebvre.
"The council won't accept our plan and we'll be stuck with Falk's and fight in the Empire's backyard." Said Horwood as others added in.
"Maybe we accept the plan and Falk's pride is saved, council will be happy, but we do it at own pace." Yang suggested.
"We could have a fleet to protect the Transport Fleet and another for recon and the rest act as the main vanguard." Al-Salem suggested.
"We could pick which one to do the recon and the other for transport convoys." Perry says as she sees the possibility of a temporary entry, then exit the empire.
Harrow immediately shot up and yells in excitement. "Yes! Yes!" He says as he falls to his knees and is in relief.
"Oh the timing couldn't be anymore perfect!" He yells as the other admirals were confused.
"Do you, my fellow admirals, remember why I built the Winged Hussars?" Harrow says as they try to remember as to why he built it. Yang then realized and so did Perry.
"We could have the Winged hussars protect the transports, the Winged hussars are mainly comprised of missile ships and a small minority are standard, but the fleet is a fast response and delay fleet," Harrow said to them. The other Admirals were shocked by it and knew it would be possible.
"Then which fleet would go for recon." Asked Appleton, as other thought of it.
"Why not the 5th fleet?" Asked Yang as he scratches his head.
Bewcock looked at him puzzled. "Yes that could work, Bewcock had been on the front lines for over 50 years. So Admiral Bewcock... are up for this task?" Harrow asked bewcock sat there and nodded yes.
But before the meeting was finished, Bewcock says this. "We do the fleet arrangement, we should have a backup plan, and simply have some room to maneuver. But don't worry about Lobos. I'll take care of that."
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August 13, 796 UC
Heinessenpolis, Edwards Starport
Yang and the other officers were busy walking in the airport. However, numerous crowds were busy cheering them on much to Yang's distaste to it.
He and his staff get on the Hyperion as they simply set everything ready. Yang sees the 9th and 10th fleet flagships with only small token forces.
He saw numerous ships of standard and Auxiliary ships and their flagships. But he could see other flagships within them.
The Airget Lahm and the Patoroklos which were part of the 13th fleet.
Airget Lahm 👆
Patoroklos 👇
The Diomedes and Achilles of the 5th and 9th Fleets respectively. They could possibly be flagships of the possible 15th and 14th Fleets respectively as well.
Diomedes 👆
Achilles 👆
The massive invasion force then entered the corridor. Bew cock did what he said he'd take care of lobos and the rendezvous point plan and the fleet organization and other be implemented.
And then it started.
"5th fleet has started to move, all ships prepare to follow." Said Yang as the 13th fleet starts to move , it was then followed by the rest as the Winged Hussars would go last.
On the 15th of August, 796 UC, 18 days later. Before it was supposed to start, the operation was a go ahead as they invade Imperial space.
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Historical facts #1
History of the Alliance standard battleship and the Twin Acts of 529 UC
Ever since the founding of the Free Planets Alliance and resurrection of the Universal Calendar in 527 UC, they had the thought of grow their population and their alliance to other planets. This would result in two acts in 529 UC, the Alliance Population Fortifications Act (A.P.F.A), and the Alliance Space Fortifications Act (A.S.P.A). Both were created in hopes that the Alliance would grow, but the population act was what most historians at the time and up by the point of the Battle of Astarte, one of the most controversial acts ever passed by the Alliance government. The APFA was to bolster the population of the Alliance from 180,000 to however much the goal was and it was exceeding limits on what to do to get that goal. Some of which upped to artificial growth anf possible cloning. However the weight of it all of the population act ended up being too much for the 1st generation of Alliance citizens to be born and resulted in its loss of any support and was repealed in 537 UC. This repeal of the act also brought the "Alliance Golden Age."
The other act for space fortification had a massive amount of support and by 537 UC; the same years the population was repealed, 12 large cruiser ships were made as another 2 ships of the exodus fleet also acted as part of it but as colony ships. Later on, from being called the, "Alliance Backbone Fleet," it would be then called the, "Alliance Star Fleet.
This would result in even more support for the Alliance as a central part for thr Alliance. This would result in the "Golden Age of the Free Planets Alliance," or as some others would say, "The Democratic Golden of the Republic."
113 years passed and the 1st battleships to be comissioned were in 615 UC and unlike the current ships that were in comissioned in the mid to late wars used nuclear power reactors of both Plutonium and Uranium 235 for energy and propulsion of the fleet.
And by 640 UC the Alliance had about 3,000 battleships in service with 9,500 cruisers and the rest formed up the rest of the 25,000 ships of the Alliance fleet due to the fear of an attack by the Galactic Empire.
The first use of it was the when the February Encounter/ Incident in 640 UC. This was also when both years of peace and the "Golden Age" ended ans the start of the Alliance-Imperial war.
In 640 UC the 25,000 ships with 2,500,000 soldiers went to repel the invading the enemy fleet led by the Duke Herbert of Kaiser Frederick III. This would later shatter the invincibility of the Imperial fleet and caused the population of the Alliance boom.
However by 740 UC, the old battleship was simply decommissioned as another one was to be comissioned to phase it out.
The overall design was complicated with the curved top of the bow and the awkward overhang the ship had for its engine block and was then most notable one of this type was the Shah Abbas: Which held the soon-to-be Admiral Bewcock of the 5th fleet during the 2nd battle of Tiamat which was also the final battle that held all of the 730 Mafia in one place serving together.
However, 25 years later after this one came, the latest battleship design came in, but implementing the designs of the battleships by the Dagon Era for the prow and the engine section, whilst the rest (aka, the midsection) was implemented by the Tiamat design.
This ship was what people would say an excellent hybrid of both designs.
The first ship of the current standard battleship class was built in 765 UC. It was then named the namesake of the class: GV-H2. But later on was renamed as Saigon. And over the course of that ship's service have an overhaul, but it's energy reactor exploded which saw it to be scrapped in 770 UC.
The Ulysses was what everyone called the "Temperamental Beast." When it was comissioned in 785 UC in the same shipyard that the Saigon was scrapped in. After it was commissioned, it became a very violent ship. Not only to its enemies, but also itself. Sometimes the engines on it had the shortest lifespan ever for a ship of it's type. It even once blew out it's own engine a full day after maintenance at a shipyard. So over the problems it had a record for a lucky ship and have 15 refits and 21 (13 of which were the engine) overhauls over its service period. It also got the moniker, "The Lucky Ship." The reason why was the fact that it had been in all fleets including the 13th fleet and had survived each engagement it had been in and was even able to save more than just one ship. By just simply being more of a temperamental beast to the enemy. One of its most notable thing it did was slam and shoot through a battleship, 2 destroyers and a fast battlship with its two groups of 4 weapons each. Another was being hit 15 times by different times, but still surviving the damage and still fighting to the near end of the battle.
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* 1 light second = 299,792.458 kilometers/186,282.397 miles
*the three range zones to describe simple distance and here they are below. 👇
Red Zone: farthest range for any ship but weapons are ineffective.
Yellow zone: middle range; effective range if a ships weapons
Green zone: really f***ing close!