Galactica had taken a beating from the initial bomb blasts from the Confederates, but it's recently upgraded shields handled the battering better than they would have before, a lot of the damage being diverted off into space or absorbed by the masses of shield layers.
Galactica responded to the Confederates attacks, by staying out of range of every planetary missle base, and the command stations weaponry. Even when tractored, it couldnt keep in range of the the Galactica fleet.
Galactica was battered, but it was in much better health than the Confederates thought. The new shield grids just kept absorbing damage, the multiple layers bleeding away most of the damage. The Confederates where hampered massively by the fact that none of their remaining fixed defences where in range. The missles and torpedoes shot towards the Galactica fleet where largely ineffective, most of them being picked off by crack pds systems, many others being drawn off target by the tempting emissions of the many ecm drones, or smashed into each other with gravity wells.
The new Confederate defence drones had proved an initial nasty surprise, but Galactica was treating the drones to massed railgun fire. A single railgun battery could hit a drone from both sides, and Galactica had a lot of spare railgun batteries. The drones also found what it was like to be the target of thousands of repulsor and tractor beams, which Galactica had finally implemented tactical plans, even though it had always ahd them, due to them being standard fit on all warships. Transfered shield energy just meant more to be annihilated when they got smashed together. If they survived the shileds clashing, they found their hulls couldnt. Any repulsors the drones might have had proved feeble against several times their number.
The Confederates shield transfer system made destroying individual ships harder, but in Galacticas opinion, every hit destroyed shields. It also left the Confederates open to specialised targeting plans. Volley after volley of missles shot towards the Confederate fleet. Random groupings all looked like they where heading for a specific ship, but the attack drive on each standoff missle could change course very quickly. If the Confederates transfered less shield energy, it left their other ships open to attack, and if they didnt, it left the targeted ships dead.
The Heavy Beam Cruisers where proving their worth, smashing everything they had into any ship which came near. Often enough, it destroyed said ship completely before the Confederates could do anything. Even when they manged to transfer energy, Galactica just managed to destroy even more shields. The defence drones quickly found exchanging fire with a Heavy Beam Cruiser to be a losing proposition.
The improved layering system was proving its worth, shileds regenerating extremely quickly, and taking even less damage than before.
Meanwhile, Galactcia had decided if it was going to do things properly, it may as well put everything into the pot. 600 ships arrived from Leka and Gadzair, leaving the systems bare of most of their mobile defences. The Confederates would find any attacks on those systems much harder than they might expect though.
The 600 ships, upon arrival, took up a defencive perimeter around the other Galactica ships, and instantly shot a few thousand missles into space, which procceded to head towards the Confederate fleet, and then deactivate. After that however, they added a lot of firepower to Galacticas fleet. Galactica outnumbered the Confederate fleet by over 2-1, and its ships where still a lot healthier.
At this point, Galactica changed its targeting slightly. A full fleets worth of missles shot off, apparently heading off into deep space. The next volley repeated this, but not so far of course as the last volley. When the next volley laucnhed however, the 2 previous volleys changed direction. The first was heading for the moons, the second for the Command Station, and the third targeted a large spread of Confederate ships. Every volley would arrive at the same time. The Confederates couldnt defend everything at once.
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In deep Galactica space, the 8th Galactic Fleet was performing maneauvers. its recent forming might have given problems in battle coordination, but it had done excellently, most likely due to Galacticas military tradition, and the previous posting of all ships. Galactica was ready
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Improved Planetary shielding: 4 posts
Freighter project: 1 posts
Missile grav sheath upgrade: 1 posts
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If someone makes a mistake, it is not my fault. I will however use it to my advantage.
(This message has been edited by RMA (edited 01-04-2002).)