The Renzokuken stood ready, and the United Earth fleet, comprised of approximately one thousand and four hundred ships, a proud force that stood in a typical spearhead formation, was awaiting the arrival of the Mercenary Alliance fleets. There was no definite knowledge that the Mercenary Alliance, commanded by Carnotaur, the renegade Paladin had mistrusted and mistrusted, until he had finally saved Paladin from sure death, would even come to the UE's aid this time, but with GNN messages and the energy output created by the cubes, they would know. And they would come.
The four hundred Zidagar vessels had recently been met by just over a thousand more, and the Zidagar were holding steady in space, flanking the UE forces. Paladin stood at the bridge of the Renzokuken, a permanent comm.link up to Rima, and all the viewscreens depicting different scenes of what would soon become the battlefield. Ever since faint energy signals had showed up at the far end of the system, Paladin had been alert. He knew they were Mercenary Alliance ships, and he could almost count the minutes go by.
"Approximately five minutes, sir," one officer stated to Paladin's unasked question. Paladin nodded slowly. He knew another problem, one which few people were privy to. Galactica's presence in the second blockaded system had been withdrawn the second the Zidagar and UE made their first move. Those forces were now coming through, one and a half thousand moving through to F-25 and to pincer the UE, and the other one and a half thousand moving the other way, to support the main blockade. The first part of the battle might be simple enough, but after that, things would get interesting...
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The Mercenary Alliance vessels, almost a hundred gleaming Ravens, broke out into space in a silence that seemed incredibly wrong, somehow. To a viewer's eye, they just appeared and floated forwards, which seemed so incorrect. They marked the beginning of one of the largest encounters this galaxy had ever seen, and they made not a single sound through the vacuum of space.
The Ravens found themselves instantly surrounded by Galactica warships, but they still had enough thrust to charge through, turrets blazing around the ships that surrounded them. Shields were battered away, and a lone frigate succumbed to the heavy firepower. However, one Raven still found itself drowned in cluster missiles, and it's explosion took out the fighters of several more.
Meanwhile, the UE and Zidagar ships were busy storming the blockade itself, while the Ravens weaved in and out, picking off targets. One Galactica Dreadnought, the G.S.S Justice, and it's accompanying escorts of two Galactica cruisers and four frigates, found itself challenged by fifteen Ravens fairly early on the the battle.
"Attack!" shouted the captain of the dreadnought, and a similar command came from the squadron leader of the Ravens. In a fiery blast of energy, the ships met, and through all the explosions nothing could be seen. The dreadnought was the only vessel not completely covered in explosions.
Slowly, the scene settled, and the outcome could be seen. The frigates and cruisers had been picked off, and were now nothing but spacedust and floating scraps of metal. Of the fifteen Ravens, twelve had been destroyed, and the last three were making a hasty retreat. The G.S.S Justice was severely battered, it's shields at the last layer, which was at 24%, and it's turrets had overheated from the short conflict. The Justice would have fallen, were it not for the presence of another dreadnought from above. The Mercenary Alliance felt the pain of the loss of so many Ravens, but they continued fighting.
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Hawk sat waiting aboard the Zephyr, his mind grim with the plan he was about to execute. The Zehpyr waited in hyperspace, some distance from an entry point. Near the entry point was a Zacha fighter, one of the Sedran's fighters. The pilot knew what was expected of him and had made peace with life. The plan was both simple and complex; but there was no other choice ifthis battle were to succeed.
Hawk had made sure that no Zidagar or UE ships were in range, and only Galactica ships were at the striking point. Hawk opened a channel and said, "Fauz, you are go for the jumps. May the Fates watch after you." The fighter pilot, a Zidagar, nodded and turned off the screen. Moving the controls, he prepared for jump.
Some decades ago, a few Kisani scientists came up with the conception of a jump within a jump. Many plans had been made, drawn, scraped, and redrawn. Finally, they thought the plan was at its best and with all the right programing and coordinates made, they preformed it. With an Arada, they decided to plot a course from Kelmaon to Leeka and at the last moment of re-entry, jump once more, hoping for faster speed. The plan worked....or so it was thought at first. The scientists were the first to Leeka via normal hyperspace, for they considered themselves to valubale to risk in such a venture. As the test ship, with the pilot doing her job, opened a jump point into realspace and at the right moment, made another jump within hyperspace, the results were star-shattering. The test Arada exploded, but something followed; a massive explosion in the dead of space as a burst of energy erupted, causing the Kisani scientist's ship, a Crescent Warship, to explode with great fury. Yet it was found out that no damage was caused in hyperspace for some reason. The research was shut down and the project deemed a failure. Now it would be used as a weapon of sorts. The hyperburst would only destroy a few of Galactica's ships, but the instant energy output would severely play havoc on most of Galactica's ship's sensors for several moments, and that was one of the edges needed.
As the Zacha fighter opened a jump point to realspace, the Galactica ships around and near the point almost instantly picked it up. As the commander of one dreadnaught ordered all nearby ships to open fire, the sensor officer muttered an oath and said something, which was only half-stated. The fighter executed the second jump...and all hell broke loose. A massive explosionoccured and hyper-energy gathered, causing a second explosion. The explosion caught in its raging storm four frigates, two carriers and many fighters, causing them to explode in firey inferno. That was the less of two problems, because the energy wave had just screwed up most of the ship's sensors.
A few moments later, two more jump points flared up, and from them lept the Zephyr and the Sedran, weapons hot and blazing. The battle had begun....
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Galactica were fighting back fiercely, but the other attacking forces were gaining ground slowly. One entire sector of the blockade had been destroyed, making a break in the chain, but it was obvious that wouldn't matter. The UE and Zidagar weren't here to break through the blockade, they were here to destroy it completely.
However, things perhaps weren't as simple as they thought it was. Not only were Galactica forces moving to reinforce the position, but Galactica had only just managed to organise it's forces properly. Even with the sensors scrambled from the insane trick of a traitorous Zacha, they could still pull off this trick, just not as well.
Ten dreadnoughts stood on the brink of space, picking off fighters that came after them. They were mainly not engaged in the combat itself. Ten dreadnoughts, a huge force, a majestic force - the largest still combined force on the battlefield. The abilities of a lone dreadnought were ignored; instead, the firepower of the whole would be used.
The dreadnoughts slowly moved into the battle. A Dragon was spearheading two Galactica frigates. The dreadnoughts opened fire. Within a few seconds, the Dragon was dust. Two more Dragons were attacking a pair of cruisers. The dreadnoughts opened fire, and the Dragons were dust. A group of five Zidagar warships were currently engaging battle with a small battlegroup. The dreadnoughts opened fire, and the Zidagar ships were dust.
Five Dragons broke into the dreadnought's protected dead zone, where any previous ships had been blasted apart. Five Dragons might be a lethal threat for four dreadnoughts, but not for ten. The dreadnoughts opened heavy firepower, and the Dragons countered with their turrets and deployed their Starlances. Two Dragons were quickly destroyed by the dreadnoughts, and one dreadnought found itself battered away by the Dragon's combined firepower.
The battle took several minutes to end completely, and nine dreadnoughts continued their rampage.......
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"Losses?" Paladin said, straining to remain standing on the Renzokuken, which was busy attacking a dreadnought even as they spoke.
"We've lost about fourty Dragons already, hundred and twenty Drakes, countless Wyverns," the communications officer replied. "A group of dreadnoughts are causing the most damage. No singular forces are able to defeat it. We'll need to mass a number of Dragons to go up against them."
Paladin frowned. Trying to mass Dragons in the middle of a battle was an almost impossible task, but those dreadnoughts couldn't be left alone. If they were allowed to continue, they might cause the destruction of another fifty Dragons, and other forces. Something had to be done, but for once Paladin didn't have a clue.
Suddenly, Paladin received a message from Carnotaur himself.
"Paladin, good to see you. I see your problem here, and don't worry about it. I've got Ravens on the job."
The comm.link cut off before Paladin could speak. Confused, Paladin looked around the bridge.
"Ravens?" he asked.
One officer offered a reply. "Impressive warships that the Mercenary Alliance are using. They're massing fifty of them against the dreadnought group."
Paladin nodded. "Continue. Leave the dreadnoughts to our friends."
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The fighter blasted to pieces as the Zephyr veered off, three Zacha fighters trailing behind him. The fighters were under his command for the duration of the battle, and he had made sure the pilots were good. More then a few Galactica fighters lay behind them in ruins, and even a frigate. In the cockpit of the Zephyr, Hawk made many guestures, chosing targets and making choices. He had been in battle many times before and this would not be the last; indeed this one reminded him of a raid on UE space. The Kisani made a motion and ordered the fighters to veer off and go about their own choices.
The three fighters veered off and headed different ways. It wasn't a wise choice on their part; at once fighters fired on two of them, and the Zacha ships were so much space dust while the third Zacha fighter managed to make it back near the Sedran.
The Zephyr continued along on course, coming across a damaged frigate. The frigate hardly saw the Arada coming. Hawk caused the light interface to flare with many different colors as he moved his hands to execute different commands. Three pursuit missiles slammed into the frigate followed by whitefire beam fire. The frigate caught it all full on, and although it managed a few shots, it was soon flaming. Hawk chose his next target, a lightly damaged frigate. He headed towards it...and the Zephyr shook as a concuision missile hit her full on. The ship's shields flared and Hawk pulled up. With another flick of his wrist, the Arada came back down, forward batteries firing on full while three pursuit missiles slamed into the frigate's shields, then hull. Hawk hit the display and the Arada accelerated towards the ship, spinnimg constantly as her weapons fired. The frigate started flaming and Hawk veered away...and straight through a fighter pack. Weapons fired from the Zephyr and the Arada took fire as well. Hawk came barreling out of the pack and went forwards....and the fighters pursued.
Hawk located a dreadnaught in combat with a Dragon and with a guesture headed towards the massive ship. The fighters pursued, firing everything they had at the devil Zacha Arada. The ship took what fire it was hit with and kept on going. Just as the Zephyr reached the shields of the Galactica Dreadnaught, Hawk made several curt guestures and pulled up just barely avoided crashing through the shields. The fighters weren't so fortunate; a great flash appeared along the dreadnaught’s hull as the fighters smashed through the shields and those that weren't vaporized exploded as they hit the hull.
Hawk relaxed as the arada pulled back. That had been close. As the Kisani moved to target another ship, the proxmimty alert sounded; Hawk looked up and saw three stray concusion missiles. Before he could do anything, they exploded and the whole of the Zephyr shook. The arada was tossed end over end someways back and stayed there...dead in space.
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"Good place to get disabled, Hawk," Paladin said over a communications link that was barely functioning. "Myself and the crew of the Renzokuken are grateful for your help. We're towing you in now."
The comm. link went offline, and the Zephyr was towed into the Renzokuken without further complaints. Very soon Hawk found himself in the adaptable fighter bay of the Renzokuken itself, his Arada taking up the place of two Wyverns.
Pity about the Wyverns, Paladin thought. He'd known both pilots, and seen them both go up in a blaze of fire. Well, at least somebody could make use of the fighter bay, be it an uptight, stubborn and overconfident fighter pilot.
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Fifty Ravens swept down across the battlefield, taking shots from various Galactica vessels. Frigates and fighters attemped pursuit, but were soon convinced otherwise by a storm of Zidagar fire. The Ravens made their way towards the nine Dreadnoughts, and opened fire.
However, it wasn't as simple as that. A pocket of cruisers and frigates had formed around the dreadnoughts, and the Ravens realised this wasn't going to be as simple as they had first thought.
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A fleet of Zakiths and Kizats, led personally by Rima herself, made their way through an opening in the crowded battlefield, towards a large group of Galactica vessels that, instead of engaging targets mindlessly, were fighting a large group of Mercenary Alliance ships. Rima nodded to herself, and the order came.
Within a few seconds Zidaras and Humrugars had left their positions fighting in skirmishes and had joined the main force. Rima then commanded her ships to move forward, and attack the Galactica position.
However, even as she gave the order a force of Galactica warships massed and came in from behind....
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The battle had ended almost an hour ago, and the Galactica ships had fled into the depths of space. Of the 3000 Galactica vessels present at the battle, almost 2000 had been destroyed, including fifteen dreadnoughts. Galactica was badly wounded, and even with the reinforcements - another 3000 ships coming in from either side, things wouldn't be easy for them. The remaining thousand Galactica vessels were all seriously damaged, and needed servicing, or they wouldn't perform well in any battles onwards.
That wasn't to say that the other side hadn't received losses. Almost fifty Dragons had been destroyed, leaving the UE with about 150 left. Of the five hundred Drakes that had entered this galaxy, only fifty remained, and of the thousand Wyverns half had been incinerated.
The Zidagar had faired better, and of their 1500 ships, 300 had been lost. The Mercenary Alliance had lost 40 Ravens, and the Zacha faced a badly damaged Sedran, that would need extensive work.
The battle wasn't over yet, though. Galactica could choose either to push their attack again, or pull back, and everybody thought they knew the true answer.
Battered Dragons slowly made their way home, to F-25, with captains who had not slept in days, and who knew the grim future for them.
The largest recorded battle of this galaxy had taken place. The Battle of the Blockade.
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Meanwhile, a GNN Arada swept out of the system, with some incredible footage......
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That's all very nice, but where are the guns?
- SilverDragon
I can't see how'd you fire through it like that, c) they could most likely collapse the jump hole within less than a second and d) I doubt you could stand still during a through a jump gate in that way.